UC-NRI 


it  ais 


I  II LL 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 


ANCil'.NT  EDUCATION 


Chancellor's  English  C 
1885 


WALT,:-; 


H)KMKKLY  SCHOLAx  (>|-   M  \, 


ANASTA  1 1C  REPRINT  OF  THH  EDITION  OXFORD  1885 

NEW  YORK,  1910 
G.  E.  STECHERT  &  CO. 


THE 


THEORY  AND  PRACTICE 


OF 


ANCIENT  EDUCATION 


BEING 


Chancellor's  Cnglist)  Cssay 
1885 


BY 


WALTER  HOBHOUSE,  B.  A. 

FELLOW  OF  HERTFORD  COLLEGE 
FORMERLY  SCHOLAR  OF  NEW  COLLEGE 


ANASTATIC  REPRINT  OF  THE  EDITION  OXFORD  1885 

NEW  YORK,  1910 
G.  E.  STECHERT  &  CO. 


L.A-M 


PREFACE. 

IP  'a  great  book  is  a  great  evil/  a  small  book  is,  possibly, 
a  greater  still :  nor  can  there  be  any  excuse  for  the  publicat  ion 
of  a  prize  Essay  like  the  present,  save  an  excessive  deference 
to  custom,.  I  have  thought  it  better  to  publish  the  present 
pages  in  the  original  nakedness  .of  their  Essay  form,  rather 
than  to  simulate  the  appearance  of  an  exhaustive  treatise  on 
Ancient  Education.  My  aim  has  been  to  give  a  connected 
account  of  the  main  features  of  Ancient  Education  with  illus- 
trations from  original  writers,  and  I  have  ventured  to  add. 
some  remarks  on  Modern  Education  which  I  fancied,  perhaps 
wrongly,  to  be  not  altogether  out  of  place.  For  the  many 
obvious  inadequacies  of  the  Essay  I  can  only  urge  as  a  very 
partial  excuse  the  fact  that  it  was  written  during  some  months 
of  foreign  travel,  with  scanty  opportunities  for  referring  to 
many  authorities  of  whom  I  should  have  been  glad  to  make 
more  use. 

I  am  indebted  to  the  kindness  of  Mr.  J.L.  Sir ackan -Davidson, 
of  Balliol,  for  the  references  to  Polybius  on  p.  15,  and  p.  31. 

OXFORD,  July  1885. 


255821 


CONTENTS. 

PACE 

I.  INTRODUCTORY      ' I 

II.  EDUCATION  IN  GREECE        ..••...  3 

§  i.  ITS  DIVISIONS                                        •  3 
§  2.  INFANCY  AND  CHILDHOOD     .       .       •       •                       .4 

§  3.  INSTRUCTION  IN  •yv/ivao-rueq $ 

§  4.  EDUCATION  IN  /iovo-i*//,  (a)  ypa/i/iara         .....  9 

§5.           „              „           (0)  Music  AND  DRAWING  .       .       .  n 

§6.  EDUCATION  OF  CHARACTER  AND  MANNERS.       .       .       .  12 

§  7.  EDUCATION  IN  GREEK  STATES  OTHER  THAN  ATHENS.       .  14 

§  8.  FEMALE  EDUCATION .16 

§  9.  HIGHER  EDUCATION     (a)  SOPHISTS  AND  RHETORS    .       .  16 

§  10,       „            „               O)  SCHOOLS  OF  PHILOSOPHY  .        .  20 

§  u.  GREEK  THEORIES  ABOUT  EDUCATION 22 

in.  EDUCATION  AT  ROME 29 

§  i.  EDUCATION  BEFORE  THE  PUNIC  WARS         ....  29 
§2.  RISE  OF  GREEK  INFLUENCE  .       .       .        •       ...        -32 

§  3.  EDUCATION  IN  TIME  OF  CICERO,  (a)  EARLY  YEARS      •        •  34 
§  4.  EDUCATION  IN  TIME  OF  CICERO  (cont.},  (ft)  GRAMMAR  AND 

RHETORIC ...  36 

§  5.  EDUCATION  TN  TIME  OF  CICERO  (cont.\  (y)  YOUNG  MANHOOD  38 
§  6.  EDUCATION  IN  TIME  OF  CICERO  (coni.),  (8)  PHYSICAL  EDU- 
CATION               ...  40 

§  7.  EDUCATION  UNDER  THE  EMPIRE  ....  41 

§  8.  QUINTILIAN •  44 

I\r.  COMPARISON  OF  THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN  SYSTEMS  49 

V.  EDUCATION.    ANCIENT  AND  MODERN                              '  51 


ANCIENT    EDUCATION. 


I.    INTRODUCTORY 

'  What  sculpture  is  to  the  block  of  marble,  education  is  to  the  human 
soul.' — ADDISON. 

IN  attempting  a  discussion  of  the  principles  and  the  practice  of 
Ancient  Education  we  are  met  at  starting  by  the  question,  What 
is  Education?  Where  are  we  to  draw  the  dividing  line  between 
the  process  which  prepares  us  for  life,  and  the  life  for  which  we 
are  thus  prepared  ?  Are  we  to  reckon  the  training  of  moral  and 
physical  qualities  on  an  equal  footing  with  the  intellectual  studies 
which  in  modern  times  we  are  perhaps  most  prone,  to  associate 
immediately  with  the  word  'Education'?  We  are  not  indeed 
called  upon,  at  this  stage  at  all  events,  to  consider  different 
theories  as  to  the  true  end  of  Education ;  but  we  should  be  neg- 
lecting an  important  side  of  the  enquiry  if  we  did  not  give  a 
liberal  interpretation  to  the  word.  That  such  an  interpretation 
was  given  by  the  Greeks  and  Romans  to  their  equivalent  words, 
*  iraibcia '  and  *  institutio,'  is  evident,  not  from  a  few  passages,  but 
from  the  whole  tone  and  spirit  of  their  writings  and  discussions 
on  the  subject.  We  see  it  on  the  one  hand  in  the  prominence  of 
yvnvao-riKri,  on  the  other  in  the  importance  attached  to  tduTpos 1  as 
a  factor  in  shaping  a  good  moral  character.  To  understand  ancient 
education  we  must  approach  it  from  this  point  of  view  :  and  if  we 
do  so,  it  at  once  becomes  plain  that  education  is  inseparably 
bound  up  with  all  that  is  deepest  in  national  life,  national  charac- 
ter, and  national  history.  Education  is  both  a  cause  and  an 
effect:  it  is  the  index  of  the  moral  state  of  the  family,  of  the 
vitality  or  decay  of  religion,  of  the  growth  or  arrest  of  culture: 
it  is  at  the  same  time  shaping  the  coming  generation,  and  with 
it  the  whole  destiny  of  a  people.  If  there  is  any  one  lesson  that 
the  history  of  Rome  teaches  us,  it  is  that  national  prosperity 
cannot  coexist  with  moral  decay,  and  in  tracing  the  course  of 
Roman  education  we  find  this  moral  decay  writ  large,  beyond 
possibility  of  mistake.  '  The  Empire  perished  for  want  of  men,' — 
in  other  words,  from  the  immorality  of  society ;  immorality  first 
producing  and  then  aggravated  by  faulty  education.  Similarly  on 
the  intellectual  side  we  perceive  the  connection  between  educa- 
tion and  literature :  in  the  earliest  stages  there  is  no  culture,  for 

1  Arist  (Eth.  x)  reckons  it  with  <(>vffis  and  8«5dx^  as  an  element  in  morality. 

B 


2  7'heory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

there  is  no  literature  to  use  as  material  for  culture  ;  education  and 
literature  rise  pari  passu,  and  are  mutually  dependent. 

1  Education,'  says  Paiey,  '  in  the  most  extensive  sense  of  the 
word  may  comprehend  every  preparation  made  in  our  youth  for 
the  rest  of  our  lives/  Such  too  is  the  best  interpretation  of  the 
word  for  the  purposes  of  our  enquiry. 

To  go  further  and  attempt  any  definition  of  « Ancient '  may  be 
thought  dangerous,  more  especially  in  Oxford.  Yet,  for  purposes 
of  classification  and  arrangement,  divisions  are  necessary,  even 
though  artificial  and  shallow.  Education,  like  History,  may  be 
one  and  indivisible,  and  yet  have  its  turning-points,  its  epochs, 
its  ebb  and  flow.  The  most  satisfactory  line  of  division  may 
probably  be  found  in  the  spread  of  Christianity  over  the  Roman 
Empire.  For  whilst  there  is  a  certain  continuity  both  of  practice 
and  of  theory,  and  though  the  study  of  classical  authors  continues 
to  form  so  large  a  part  of  the  education  of  to-day,  there  was  too 
complete  a  change  in  the  leading  ideas  and  in  the  moral  atmos- 
phere of  society,  and  more  especially  in  the  aims  of  the  chief 
educating  class,  not  to  have  a  paramount  effect  on  the  educational 
system.  At  the. same  time  also  the  proportion  of  the  educated 
class  to  the  whole  population  decreases,  as  the  Northern  invaders 
settle  in  ever  increasing  numbers  on  the  territories  of  Rome  till 
by  a  gradual  process  learning  becomes  the  monopoly  of  a  class,  and 
culture  is  well-nigh  totally  extinguished, 

'Ancient*  being  thus  limited  in  point  of  time,  it  remains  to 
limit  it  in  space.  By  the  intrinsic  value  of  their  systems  and 
theories,  as  well  as  by  the  more  abundant  evidence  as  to  their 
nature,  our  attention  is  chiefly  drawn  to  the  two  great  countries 
of  Greece  and  Rome.  Of  the  educational  views  and  customs  of 
other  nations  of  antiquity  we  have  little  knowledge,  but  our  ignor- 
ance need  cause  us  no  great  regret.  The  Persians  we  know,  on 
the  authority  of  Herodotus,  were  taught  to  ride,  to  shoot,  and  to 
speak  the  truth;  among  the  Jews  non-professional  education  was 
probably  confined  to  studies  connected  with  the  Scriptures :  in 
Egypt,  according  to  Plato,  science  was  taught  in  the  shape  of 
geometry  and  astronomy  ;  but  the  system  was  stereotyped  and 
unprogressive,  if  we  may  credit  Plato's  statement  that  the  <  patterns 
of  music,  dancing,  and  painting  have  been  fixed  there  for  10,000 
years,  and  no  others  are  allowed  V 

Limiting  our  enquiry  to  the  education  of  clasrical  antiquity,  it 
will  be  best  to  exhibit,  in  some  detail  and  with  illustrations  from 
the  original  authorities  sufficient  to  render  the  picture  fairly  com- 
plete, the  systems  of  education  which  prevailed  in  the  ancient 
world,  and  the  theories  projected  for  their  amendment.  We  shall 
then  be  able  to  form  a  judgment  of  their  strong  and  of  their  weak 
points ;  to  compare  the  main  features  of  Greek  education  with 
that  of  Rome,  and  to  contrast  ancient  education  as  a  whole  with 
more  modern  views.  It  may  be  that  in  so  doing  amongst  much 

,  656. 


Education  in  Greece. 


that  is  adapted  only  to  a  small  city  state  and  to  a  stage  of  society 
less  complex  than  our  own,  amongst  much  that  disgusts  and  repeJs, 
we  may  find  some  customs  of  which  we  regret  the  disappearance, 
and  some  ideas  that  we  might  labour  to  restore.  The  old  things 
have  passed  away ,  but  the  monuments  of  ancient  intellect  and 
character  may  repay  investigation  as  well  as  the  ruins  of  stone,  the 
work  of  men's  hands. 


II.     EDUCATION   IN   GREECE 
§  i,  ITS  DIVISIONS. 

vatStiav  ws  Siffctiro.  —  AR.  Nub.  961 


To  the  Greeks  of  succeeding  generations  the  k  men  who  fought 
at  Marathon  '  formed  an  ideal  of  virtue  and  simplicity  and  bravery, 
which  their  own  age,  in  its  supposed  degeneracy,  could  only  imitate 
at  a  distance.  Aristophanes  attributes  the  qualities  which  distin- 
guished the  Mapa0<av6fiaxot  to  the  old  system  of  education,  the 
frpxata  vrcuSefa,  which  in  his  opinion  was  being  fast  supplanted  by 
the  sophistic  instruction  fashionable  in  his  time,  to  the  ruin  of  all 
robustness  both  of  intellect  and  character  l.  Of  the  extent  of  the 
ordinary  system,  and  of  its  aim  and  its  principles,  we  have  suffi- 
cient means  of  judging.  Our  authorities  are  referring  generally  to 
Athens,  but  the  same  features  apparently  prevailed  in  other  Greek 
states  with  the  exception  of  Sparta. 

The  ordinary  education  was  usually  classified  under  two  heads 
—  /uovo-tKrj  and  yvjuwaoTun}  2  ;  the  one  directed  to  the  improvement 
of  the  mind,  the  other  to  that  of  the  body.  Movtrucij,  however,  had 
a  specialised  as  well  as  a  general  sense,  and  so  in  Aristotle  we  get 
another  classification,  yu/u^aoTuij,  jbtovo-tKi/,  yp<£jxjuara,and  ypa<J>i*7};  the 
latter,  he  remarks,  was  not  universal  3. 

Thus  the  ordinary  education  of  an  Athenian  in  the  time  of 
Pericles  consisted  in  yvjuwcumfci},  and  the  two  divisions  of  JAOVCTIKTJ, 
music  and  letters.  We  have  evidence  that  education  was  held  to 
be  of  the  greatest  importance,  and  was  widespread.  In  the  Per- 
sian Wars,  when  the  refugees  from  Athens  sought  for  shelter  at 
Troezen,  we  hear  of  arrangements  being  immediately  made  for  the 
instruction  of  their  children4,  and  Mitylene  once  punished  the 
revolt  of  a  colony  by  forbidding  education6.  When  prosperity 
revived  in  Greece  after  the  Persian  Wars  more  attention  seems  to 
have  been  devoted  to  education,  and  new  experiments  were  tried6. 
Some  of  these  were  short-lived,  and  no  great  change  came  over 
education  till  the  appearance  of  the  Sophists. 


1  Nnb.  986  rttvr'  \erriv  t«e  tvu  kf 
8  Plat,  Rep.  ii  376  E. 
3  Ari&t.  Pol.  v.  (viii.)  icot  reraprijv  tviot  yptHpttefy  .  4  Plut.  Themist.  10. 

5  Ael.  V.  H.  15  irAfforv  KoXafffaiv  ^yrjyafjifvot  &apvTarr)v  tin  at, 
8  Arist.  Pol.  v.  (viii.)  6.  ii  <j>povt)(juiTia0(VTes  irdffqs  tfirrorro 

B  1 


4  Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

Before  proceeding  to  examine  in  detail  the  course  of  training 
in  gymnastic  and  music,  it  may  be  well  to  say  something  of  the 
early  years  of  a  Greek,  and  the  management  of  children  in  the 
family. 

§  2.  INFANCY  AND  CHILDHOOD. 

Certainly  custom  is  most  perfect  when  it  beginneth  m  young  years ;  this  we' 
call  education,  which  is  in  effect  but  early  custom/ — BACON. 

The  management  of  children  in  the  earlier  stages  of  their  exist- 
ence naturally  presents  us  with  fewer  contrasts  to  modern  society. 
To  this,  however,  there  is  one  striking  exception — the  recognised 
power  of  the  father  to  decide  whether  the  offspring  should  or  should 
not  live.  Infanticide  and  exposure  were  only  the  practical  corollary 
from  the  authority  of  the  paterfamilias,  whose  property  the  child 
was  held  to  be :  nor  is  there  any  reason  to  doubt  that  they  were 
largely  practised,  where  considerations  of  poverty  or  convenience 
suggested  their  advisability.  Weakly  infants  were  especially  treated 
in  this  manner,  and  the  custom  no  doubt  accounts  partially  for  the 
rarity  of  large  families,  which  has  been  noticed  as  prevailing  in 
Greek  society.  Supposing  the  infant  to  have  survived  this  danger 
and  to  have  been  *  taken  up  by  his  or  her  father  at  the  d/x^uSpo'/jua 
on  the  fifth  day  after  birth,  when  the  child  was  carried  round  the 
hearth  l,  there  was  not.  as  far  as  we  can  judge,  any  lack  of  parental 
affection  in  the  Greek  character :  love  of  children  is  as  prominent 
as  we  should  expect  it  to  be,  both  in  the  Homeric  poems  and  in 
tragedy.  Classical  literature  does  not  unfortunately  throw  much 
light  on  the  Greek  nursery  and  the  women's  apartments,  where  the 
first  few  years  of  the  child's  life  were  spent.  In  the  upper  classes 
it  apparently  became  unusual  for  mothers  to  suckle  their  own  child- 
ren, though  the  practice  is  recommended  by  Plutarch  as  natural  and 
beneficial3.  At  Athens  Spartan  nurses  seem  to  have  been  the 
fashion ;  apparently  it  was  thought  that  they  would  make  the  child 
harder  :  foreign  nurses  were  not  in  demand,  since  foreign  languages 
were  not  a  part  of  education.  On  the  6tK<ir?7  presents  were  made 
to  the  child,  and  the  name  was  given ;  sometimes  the  naming  was 
a  matter  of  dispute  between  the  parents  3  Of  the  apparatus  of 
babyhood  we  have  some  slight  notices.  Cradles  (jcXtpftta)  are  not 
mentioned  till  Plutarch  ;  dandling  in  the  arms  was  prevalent  then 
as  now  4  ;  lullabies  6  (ftavKaX^ara)  were  used ;  baubles  (-nep&tpaia) 
were  hung  round  the  neck,  and  used  as  ypwptVjaara  6,  and  among 
the  earliest  toys  we  find  rattles  (TrAarayeu),  the  invention  of  Archy- 
tas  ;  go-carts  (apiA&bts)  7,  and  dolls  (nopal)  usually  made  of  clay  8, 
such  as  have  been  discovered  in  the  tombs  of  young  children  at 
Corinth  and  elsewhere  in  Greece. 

1  Plat.  Theaet.  160.  9  Plut.  de  Educ.  Puer.  5. 

3  Ar.  Nub.  61  wipl  rovvAnaros  81)  'vrtvOtv  eXei&opofytfa. 

*  Plat.  Legg.  p.  790  (v  TCUS  l-yxaAaf*  d«i  <mou<rai.  »  Theocr.  Id.  xxiv.  6. 

*  Plat.  Theseus  4.  r  Nub.  864  TOVTOV  'vpi&^ijv  aol  Ataafots  d/*a^i8a. 

*  Plat.  Theaet.  146  mj 


Education  in  Greece. 


Coming  to  the  period  of  early  childhood,  we  have  preserved  to 
us  the  names  of  a  number  of  toys  and  games  *.  Among  these  were 
the  hoop  (rpoxos),  tops  of  various  kinds  (;3<?fx/3i£,  orpo/u/So's),  the  toss- 
ing of  pebbles  and  shells  (Tttvra\i,0t(eu>,  affTpdmvba),  (  ducks  and 
drakes  '  (eiroorpajucrfiosV  spinning  coins  (xaA*t*r;xos),  flying  beetles 
(firjAoAoVflr;),  blindman  s  buff  (\aAK?i  ^vla),  and  several  different 
games  with  balls.  The  street  seems  sometimes  to  have  been  the 
scene  of  these  sports  *.  Sometimes  we  find  a  father  playing  with 
his  children  to  amuse  them  :;.  Nursery  tales  then,  as  now,  formed  an 
important  feature  in  the  young  life  (ypa&v  (rtr#<£r)  /x£)0o',)  ;  they  were 
chiefly  mythological,  and  thus  came  in  for  Plato's  censure  as  instil- 
ling low  views  of  the  gods4.  Various  bugbears  were  invoked  to 
frighten  naughty  children,  of  which  some  names  are  preserved5.  Be- 
sides this  frightening,  actual  castigation  appears  to  have  been  ap- 
plied. Sometimes  a  slipper  was  used  for  the  purpose6.  Attention 
was  often  paid  to  children's  manners  ;  they  were  taught  to  be  seen 
and  not  heard  7,  and  to  pay  respect  to  their  parents  and  elders  •  nor, 
we  may  believe,  was  the  reverence  due  to  children  entirely  neglected8. 
Actual  instruction  during  these  years  seldom  went  beyond  what 
was  picked  up  from  nursery  tales  and  the  conversation  of  elders. 
School  life  began  young,  as,  owing  to  the  existence  of  small  city 
communities,  day  schooling  prevailed.  Seven  seems  to  have  been 
the  age  recommended  by  theorists  for  beginning  school  life,  but  we 
may  suppose  that  in  actual  practice  the  age  varied  with  the  for- 
wardness of  the  pupil.  Let  us  follow  the  pupil,  ov 
to  school  and  to  his  gymnastic  exercises 


§  3.  INSTRUCTION  IN 

fjv 


Kal  irpvs  rovroiv  irpoafx^  i<>v  vo 
f£«s  at]   arrjffo',   Xiirapuv 
\poicii'  ACI/JC^P.  c//iovs  fjt(ya\ovs 

Baiav  —  AR.  Nut1    1009 


Despite  of  numerous  incidental  allusions,  our  knowledge  of 
Greek  education  is  so  fragmentary  that  it  is  uncertain  whether 
gymnastic  training  went  on  at  the  same  time  that  a  boy  was  going 
to  school  or  not,  and,  if  not,  which  was  put  first.  Plato9  advises 
gymnastic  training  from  six  or  seven  till  ten,  followed-  by  instruc- 
tion in  ypa/oi/uara,  but  he  does  not  say  whether  or  no  he  wished  gym- 
nastic to  go  on  concurrently,  nor  what  was  the  usual  course 
Plautus  speaks  of  both  as  going  on  in  the  same  day  |0,  but  it  is  diffi- 
cult to  say  how  far  his  picture  is  true  to  Greek  life  Here,  per 

Chiefly  in  Pollux.  '  Pint.  Alcib.  2.  *  Pint.  Agesilaus  25 

Plat.  Rep.  377,  Laws  887,  *  E.g.  O.KKW,  /iop/tei;,  dX^iro;,  Aaput,  tjtirotxra 

Lucian.  Philop.  28.  T  Flat,  Rep.  atyai  vforrepuv  iropd  wpf<r0vrtpoi« 

Cf.  Theocr.  xv.  n  (Gorge  and  Praxnioe)  TO)  IU.KKW  vaptovros. 
Rep.  Book  iii. 

10  Plaut.  Bacchides  iii    3.  23.  -  Aristotle  is  apparently  against  carrying  on  both 
together,  Pol.  v.  (viii.)  4. 


6  Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

haps,  it  may  be  convenient  to  take  the  *  corpus  sanum '  as  the  pre- 
cedent condition  of  the  '  mens  sana,'  and  first  to  discuss  the  train- 
ing of  the  gymnasium  and  palaestra,  and  the  other  sports  which 
went  to  make  up  the  physical  training  of  the  Greek. 

The  exact  relation  of  the  palaestra  to  the  gymnasium  has  been 
disputed.  According  to  Krause's  theory,  the  former  was  intended 
for  boys,  the  latter  for  young  men :  the  palaestra  was  the  private 
enterprise  of  the  irat&orpi/Sq?,  the  gymnasia  were  built  by  the  State 
for  public  use.  Becker  pointed  out  serious  objections  to  this  theory, 
quoting  passages  to  prove  the  presence  of  boys  in  the  gymnasia  l. 
If  it  was  the  case  that  boys  practised  in  the  gymnasia,  we  must 
suppose  that  they  used  a  separate  part  of  the  building  or  went  there 
only  at  certain  hours  of  the  day,  as  the  law  quoted  by  Aeschines  a 
shows  that  attempts  were  made  to  prevent  the  presence  of  boys  and 
men  at  the  same  time.  Young  boys  would  be  accompanied  to  the 
palaestra  and  gymnasium,  as  to  the  school,  by  a  Traifiayoryoy— always 
a  slave,  and  often  not  one  of  the  best  character  3,  whose  duty  it  was 
to  prevent  them  from  getting  into  mischief  and  from  forming  un- 
desirable acquaintances.  The  palaestra,  as  its  name  shows  us,  was 
a  wrestling  school ;  the  gymnasium  included  grounds  for  running, 
archery,  and  javelin  practice,  and  usually  had  baths  attached  to  it. 
Vitruvius  gives  a  description  of  a  gymnasium,  probably  of  that  of 
Naples,  which  may  have  differed  in  some  respects  from  the  earlier 
Greek  type.  It  is  difficult  to  follow  the  whole  of  his  description, 
but  there  was  apparently  a  large  open  peristyle,  300  feet  square, 
used  for  exercises  4  ;  opening  out  of  this  was  a  large  Ephebeion  ; 
near  this  were  cold  and  warm  baths,  and  exedrae  or  saloons,  with 
seats  for  the  rhetoricians  and  philosophers6.  There  was  also  a 
stadium  or  race-course,  where  foot-races  took  place.  The  buildings 
were  often  very  ornate,  and  were  adorned  with  statues  of  gods  and 
heroes,  and  altars  where  sacrifices  took  place  on  festivals.  There 
were  three  at  Athens,  the  Lyceum,  the  Academy,  and  the  Cynos- 
arges ;  these  were  placed  under  the  care  of  ten  yvpvcuj tap\oi.  The 
office  was  one  of  the  regular  liturgies,  and  annual ;  the  gymnasi- 
archs  superintended  the  buildings,  and  could  remove  from  them 
philosophers  or  teachers  of  whom  they  disapproved.  They  were 
assisted  by  inferior  officers  (vtroKovfAYiTat,  etc.),  and  there  was  a  staff 
of  i  nstructors  ( 7rcu6orpi/3ai  and  -/v^acrrat).  Probably  the  usual  train- 
ing  of  an  Athenian  youth  would  comprise  the  Winra0Aov,  leaping, 
running,  throwing  the  dio-ico?,  throwing  the  spear,  and  wrestling,  in 
which  a  contest  was  held  at  Olympia.  Boxing  and  the  irayKpanov 

1  Ar.  Aves  141  mut  typafos  dwo  •yv/wacnot;,  Aesch.  Timarch.  35,  Luc.  Navig.  4, 
Antiph.  De  Caed.  Herod,  661  (of  a  utipditiov]  nfkcrbv  ptrcL  rStv  j)\f.von'  faovrifav  ivi 
to/  yvtwaaitf  (pfipaiciov.  however,  appears  to  have  been  used  of  later  boyhood.) 

8  Aesch.  Timarch.  p.  38  /*f>  k£t<rti»  rofs  inrlp  r^v  rStv  naibcav  j)\ueiav  ofaiv  curicyat 
rojv  -naibojj'  itv$ov  ovru^f . 

8  Plat-  Lysis  208,  Plut.  de  Educ.  Puer.  7  Av8p&iro8ov  olvo\rjirrejv  /cat  \l^vov. 

4  This  is  apparently  the  ato^  of  Plato's  Lysis  (of  (**v  iro\\oi  iv  rrj  o^Xf?  4fau(«« 

*£«•>). 

•  Cf.  Euthyd.  271,  Lysis  passim,  Theaet.  169  AMwAofpAfcM  Arftvcu  r)  drro8i;«<reo. 
f (\evovoif 


Education  in  Greece. 


were,  we  are  told,  forbidden  at  Sparta,  and  were  less  generally 
practised  than  the  other  exercises.  Whether  boys  were  trained  on 
any  particular  diet,  like  the  professional  athlete,  we  do  not  know  ; 
indeed  we  know  little  of  the  athlete's  diet ;  though  from  one  or  two 
passages  we  may  infer  that  a  heavy  meat  diet  met  with  some  favour 
among  the  athletes  of  that  day  \  as  among  those  of  the  present. 
The  exercises  of  the  gymnasia  were  thought  to  be  best  performed 
without  the  hindrance  of  clothing,  and  Greek  sentiment,  though 
apparently  at  first  opposed  to  this  practice,  soon  became  reconciled 
to  it8.  According  to  Pausanias  3,  married  women  were  not  allowed 
to  be  spectators  at  Olympia,  and  it  is  doubtful  whether  such  was 
the  custom  in  ar.y  Greek  state  with  the  exception  of  Sparta.  Private 
gymnasia  appear  to  have  been  the  fashion  among  rich  men  *,  just 
as  afterwards  at  Rome  gymnasia  and  palaestrae  are  found  among 
the  luxurious  adjuncts  of  a  nobleman's  villa. 

We  may  now  leave  details  to  consider  the  effect  of  this,  the 
most  prominent,  side  of  Greek  physical  education,  The  training 
of  the  gymnasium  and  palaestra  and  the  great  contests  at  the 
public  festivals  of  Greece,  on  which  the  aspirations  of  the  successful 
athlete  were  centred,  were  an  insoluble  problem  to  the  barbarian, 
and  were  seen  by  the  Greek  to  form  a  distinctive  feature  in  his 
national  life6.  The  Romans  emphatically  condemned  them,  and 
their  condemnation  was  anticipated  by  some  few  amongst  Greek 
thinkers.  Aristotle  notices  that  they  were  frequently  carried  too  far,  ' 
interfering  with  the  growth  of  the  body,  and  making  men  brutal6. 
Plato  remarks  that  the  iroXvaapKia  of  the  athlete  interfered  with 
mental  work7.  Euripides^  in  a  well-known  Fragment,  complains 
of  the  uselessness  of  athleticism  as  well  as  of  the  exaggerated  im- 
portance attached  to  it8.  Phtlopoemen  translated  his  dislike  of  it 
into  deed9,  and  would  have  none  of  it.  Others  objected  to  it, 
and  not  without  ground,  on  the  score  of  morality,  from  the  peculiar 
dangers  which  attended  the  Greek  palaestra. 

Regarded  as  an  instrument  to  produce  bodily  health10  and 
physique  this  gymnastic  training  was  undoubtedly  efficient  up  to  a 
certain  point.  The  body  claimed  its  due  share  in  education ; 

1  Cf.  Plat  Rep.  i  in  discussing  the  '  interest  of  the  stronger,'  338  C,  D. 
a  Plat.  Rep.  45:3  ow  iro\v$  x/><5vos  &f>'  ov  *5o*e<  TOIS  "FAA^ati'  aloxp&  tbo-i  fal  yt\ota 
.  .  .  yvfjyovy  dvSpas  6pd<tdai. 

*  Pausao.  v.  6.  8. 

*  Xen,  de  Rep.  Ath.  2.  to  xdl  yvpvaffta  teat  \ovrpd  rots  irAovcrfois  lanv  iSia  Iviois. 

5  See  especially  Lucian,  Anacharsis  24  seq.    Anacharsis  is  represented  as  discussing 
with  Solon  the  efficacy  of  this  training  in  time  of  war.     Solon  defends  it  on  this 
ground,  and  also  as  part  of  a  larger  plan — 'the  KOIVOS  dyuiv  vtpl  tvScunovi.cn. 

6  .Arist.  Pol.  v.  (viii.)  4  kcafMjfKvoi  T&  rt  eftJj;  ieo.1  rfy  avfaoiv. 
r  Rep.  453. 

*  Eur.  Fragm.  84  itaitiov  ycip  i>vr<av  pvpiiuv  icaff*  'EAAa&x  j  ov&lv  *6.Ki6v  kariv  &$\^rS)v 
Y«KOW?  ....  Trt/Tf/ja  /^a vi>ui/rct  iroktfuotfftv  Iv  XfP°^  1  Mffitovs  ty^ovres  %  81  &omdojv  xff* 
OfivovTtt  4/c/3aXot/(7'  no\* /atovs  irarpas  ; 

*  Plut.  Philop.  3  v&ffoif  d0\r)ffiv  i£tft<iA(v  us  ra  xP1J<f*tt^rar0  *&*  otofuSiToav  is  TOWS 
Avayftaiovs  d-ya/vcr  a.\pricrn.  itoiovaav. 

10  The  gymnasia  were  dedicated  to  Apollo,  the  God  of  Healing,  Plut.  Symp.  viii. 
4-  5- 


8          Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

constant  and  regular  exercise  was  the  rule,  and  was  viewed  as 
serious  work,  not  as  mere  relaxation.  So  far  it  was  superior  to 
any  system  which  neglected  physical  education  as  a  trifling  matter, 
but  probably  inferior  to  the  system  of  out-door  games  prevalent  in 
the  England  of  to-day,  both  in  the  general  effect  on  health,  and  in 
the  fostering  of  habits  of  discipline  and  self-reliance.  As  a  direct 
training  for  warfare  gymnastic  was  no  doubt  inadequate ;  but  this 
was  not  its  purpose,  and  in  every  state  it  was  supplemented  by  drill 
and  military  exercise.  In  developing  symmetry  of  form  and  that 
refined  perception  of  beautiful  form  which  raises  Greek  sculpture 
above  the  plastic  art  of  any  other  nation,  there  is  no  doubt  that  the 
gymnasia  were  largely  operative;  unfortunately  there  is  equally  little 
doubt  that  they  favoured  the  growth  of  the  vice  which  leaves  so 
black  a  stain  on  the  Greek  character1.  An  attempt  was  made  to 
deal  with  the  evil  by  a  stringent  law  regulating  the  presence  of 
men  in  the  gymnasia2,  but  this  appears  to  have  become  a  dead 
letter,  for  there  was  little  public  opinion  to  back  it  up.  Theo- 
phrastus3  represents  the  babbler  of  his  day  using  them  as  a  lounge, 
and  interrupting  the  boys  at  their  lessons.  Short  of  this  graver 
vice,  they  were  productive  both  of  idleness  and  of  quarrels4;  here 
and  there  a  Socrates  might  find  in  them  his  opportunity  to  con- 
vince the  young  Athenian  world  of  ignorance  or  of  sin ;  generally, 
however,  they  must  have  contributed  to  that  'corruption  of  youth  ' 
which  was  so  groundlessly  laid  to  Socrates'  charge. 

The  gymnasia  and  the  palaestrae  are  so  prominent  in  Greek  life, 
that  we  hear  comparatively  little  of  other  games.  Hunting  was  a  pas- 
time appreciated  in  some  parts  of  Greece,  especially  in  Sparta,  where 
the  surrounding  country  favoured  it,  and  apparently  in  other  parts 
of  the  Peloponnese,  but  it  was  impossible  in  a  town  like  Athens5, 
situated  in  a  region  like  Attica.  Rowing,  which  might  have  been 
practised  there,  at  least  on  the  sea,  would  have  been  thought  quite  be- 
neath the  KaAortdyatfos.  Swimming  was  apparently  a  common  ac- 
complishment, if  we  may  judge  from  the  proverbial  expression  for 
ignorance  and  incapability6;  and  Herodotus  remarks  on  the  inability 
of  the  barbarians  to  swim,  as  if  it  were  the  exception  in  Greece. 
There  are  some  traces  of  games  of  ball  having  been  played  in  the  gym- 
nasia ;  but  out-door  games  of  this  kind,  if  known  at  all,  certainly 
did  not  form  any  large  part  of  an  Athenian  exercise.  In  a  people 
which  lived  more  out  of  doors  than  is  possible  in  a  northern  climate 
the  physical  loss  was  not  great ;  but,  if  with  Plato t,  we  regard 

1  Cf.  Ar.  Nub.  978  seq.,  Plut.  Quaest.  Rom.  30  T«  yvftvama  Kal  ras  ira\aiffrpcu 
woAvp  aXuv  val  ffxo\})v  ivrfKovtras  KOI  KaKna^oXiav  na.1  r&  ir<u8epa/TTt/V,  Cf.  also  Plat 
Lysis  204  seq. 

-  Aesch.  Timarch.  38  eav  51  irapa  ravr'  'Iffiy  Gai'dry  fpjuovfftfcu. 

9  Theophr  xix.  (7)  (s  ray  ira\ai<TTpas  daituv  K<a\v(tv  TOU?  iraibas  ita.v9o.vtiv. 

*  Cf.  id.  ibid. 

5  Xenophon,  who  wrote  on  Hunting,  derived  his  experience  from  the  Peloponnese. 
Plato  discusses  hunting  in  the  Laws,  but  only  approves  of  certain  kinds,  which 
demand  skill  and  endurance  (824). 

iv  pT)5c  ypdpnara.  "  Rep.  410  C. 


Education  in  Greece. 


gymnastic  as  aiming  at  the  good,  not  only  of  the  body,  but  of  the 
mind,  we  may  regret  the  absence  of  games  which,  whilst  developing 
the  muscles,  develope  also  a  boyish  discipline  and  esprit  de  corps, 
and  increase  both  independence  of  character  and  strength  of 
limb. 

§  4.  EDUCATION  IN  /J.OVCTIKTJ  —  (a)  ypdjj.iA.aTa. 

.  —  PLATO. 


Greek  parents,  like  those  of  our  own  day,  often  sent  their 
children  to  school  at  an  early  age  to  keep  them  out  of  mischief  at 
home1,  though,  as  boarding-schools  were  unknown,  this  could  not 
be  done  so  completely  as  with  ourselves  ;  for  the  same  reason,  how- 
ever, school  life  could  begin  earlier.  The  age  for  beginning  school 
life  and  its  duration,  depended  largely  on  the  incomes  of  the 
parents2.  Seven  appears  to  have  been  a  common  age  for  be- 
ginning3, and  fifteen  or  sixteen  for  leaving  school. 

Schools  in  which  this  elementary  education  in  'letters'  was 
given  apparently  existed  in  every  Greek  town.  In  Mycalessus 
there  seem  to  have  been  more  than  one4.  Some  of  them  were  of 
considerable  size:  we  hear  of  one  at  Chios  with  120  boys5,  and 
sixty  boys  were  killed  by  an  accident  in  a  school  at  Astypalaea  6. 
It  thus  appears  that  there  were  regular  buildings,  with  a  certain 
amount  of  furniture  and  apparatus  for  teaching  7  ;  doubtless  there 
were  also  poorer  schools  where  the  teachers  availed  themselves  of 
a  hedge  or  a  colonnade8. 

School  hours  began  early  in  the  morning9,  but  it  is  uncertain 
how  long  they  continued  ;  holidays  were  given  on  festivals,  which, 
like  Christian  saints'  days,  sometimes  occurred  in  quick  succession, 
so  that  Theophrastus  tells  us  10  that  an  economizing  parent  did 
not  send  his  children  to  school  at  all  during  the  month  of 
Anthesterion,  as  it  contained  so  many  holidays  that  he  did  not 
think  it  worth  while  to  pay  the  fees.  These  fees,  we  gather  from 
this  and  other  passages,  were  paid  every  month  ;  their  amount  is 
unknown,  but  was  evidently  small  in  the  case  of  the  ordinary 
school  ;  nevertheless,  payment  not  unfrequently  fell  into  arrears  or 
was  evaded11. 

The  elementary  schoolmasters  (y/oa/uijxarioTaty  were  ill-paid  and 


I  Lucian,  Hermotimus  82.  2  Plat.  Protag.  326 
3  Pseudo-Plato,  Axiochus  366  E  oirorav  Is  krrratriav  fapifcgrai,  K.T.*. 

*  Thuc.  vii.  29.  *  Herod,  vi.    27.  6  Pausanias. 

7  School  benches  were  in  use.     Cp.  Dein.  de  Cor.  where  he  taunts  Aeschines  with 
sponging  the  QaOpoi. 

8  Such  teachers  were  called  xa|*ot5tSd<r«aAot,  Scholiast  on  Arist.  Eccl.  804. 

*  Thuc.  vi.  29  cfym  rJ7  fintpq. 

10  Theopur.  26  the  a.iaxPOK(P^h*-  Apparently  these  festival  holidays  were  considered 
insufficient  :  we  find  Anaxagoras  leaving  a  bequest  to  the  town  of  Clazomenae  on 
condition  that  the  anniversary  of  his  death  shall  be  kept  as  a  holiday  in  the  schools. 

II  Demosth.  in  Aphob.  i.  828,  Theophr.  Char.  22  teal  TO.  ircuSia  Stivfc  (6  dwAcu- 

irtiaf«u  is  St8afffea\ov  orav  17  TO  awodidovai,  dAAd  tpqfftu  KQKWS 


io        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

little  respected.  Demosthenes  taunts  Aeschines  with  having  been 
a  teacher  of  letters l.  Lucian  classes  this  branch  of  the  educational 
profession  with  begging  and  selling  fish  a.  Apparently  there  was 
no  test  of  a  man's  qualifications :  he  set  up  on  his  own  account, 
and  had  to  rely  on  the  merits  of  his  teaching  for  his  success.  The 
TrcuSoVojxot,  or  Council  of  Education,  who  in  some  Greek  cities3 
had  the  general  supervision  of  the  young,  examined  moral  rather 
than  intellectual  qualifications  in  the  teachers ;  but  at  Athens 
there  was  a  laxity,  which  Plato  deplores,  about  the  control  of  in- 
struction *,  nor  were  there  any  public  institutions  provided  at  the 
general  expense6.  Of  punishments  and  the  maintenance  of  disci- 
pline in  Greek  6i6a<7*aAeia  we  hear  little ;  corporal  punishment 
certainly  existed,  but  we  do  not  find  any  objections  raised  to  it  by 
Greek  writers  similar  to  those  which  are  so  strongly  expressed  by 
Quintilian6,  though  Plutarch  considers  that  it  might  be  dispensed 
with. 

Instruction  commenced  with  the  alphabet  and  learning  to  read, 
children  being  first  taught  to  recognise  separate  letters,  and  then 
proceeding  to  their  combinations  in  syllables7.  From  the  phonetic 
character  of  their  spelling  the  task  of  a  Greek  child  was  easier  than 
that  imposed  on  English  children.  Something  appears  to  have 
been  done  to  make  the  study  more  interesting  by  means  of  a  met- 
rical alphabet 8,  and  by  the  grammatical  tragedy  composed  later  on 
by  Callias.  Writing  was  done  on  tablets  covered  with  wax  with  a 
pointed  stylus,  and  was  taught  by  means  of  copies;  great  quickness 
in  writing  does  not  seem  to  have  been  generally  aimed  at.  as  copying 
work  was  performed  by  slaves.  When  the  pupil  had  attained  a 
very  moderate  proficiency  in  reading  and  writing  he  was  introduced 
to  the  works  of  the  great  poets  of  his  country,  and  was  taught  the 
1  praises  of  famous  men  V  and  especially  of  the  Homeric  heroes. 
Homer  was  read  aloud  both  by  the  teacher  and  the  pupil,  and 
great  stress  was  laid  upon  good  reading ;  large  portions  of  the 
poems  were  committed  to  memory,  and  we  hear  of  instances  of 
men  knowing  them  by  heart  all  through 10.  Homer  was  in  fact 
regarded  as  a  moral  teacher  u ;  his  wisdom  was  thought  to  be  due  to 
inspiration ;  a  quotation  from  Homer  on  any  subject  had  all  the 
force  of  a  serious  argument.  The  lyric  and  elegiac  poets  were  also 
used  in  this  way,  and  some  scholars  have  thought  that  our  text  of 

1  Demosth.  dc  Cor.  ad  fin.  iStSaiKcs  jpAftfjuira,  l-yw  8'  i<t>oiruv. 

I  Lucian,  Necyomant.  17,  Plut.  Ale.  7. 

a  E.g.  Sparta,  Xen.  Lac.  2.  a.     Cf.  Arist.  Pol.  vii.  17.  5. 

*  Plat.  Ale.  I.  p.  122  TJJS  5c   O-TJS  ytvfatut,  S>  'AA/atftaS?;,   real  rpo^  /rat  *a*8cias   4 
dAAou  drovouv  TUIV  'ABijvaiojv  ovStvt  p(\n. 

*  Aesch.  Timarch.  p.  35.  Plat.  I^egg.  804,  where  the  public  payment  of  teachers  is 
his  own  suggestion. 

*  Quint.  Inst.  Or  i.  3, 15,  Plut.  Ed.  Puer.  XL 

7  Plato.  Cratylus.  '  Athenaeus  x.  453.  *  Plat.  Protagf.  326  seq. 

10  Xen.  Sympos'.  iii.  5.    Niceratus  learnt  the  whole  of  Homer,  to  become  an  <£r^ 
&ya06\,  and  could  still  repeat  it.    Cf.  Isocr.  Paneg.  93. 

II  Plat.  Rep.  x.  599-001,  where  the  condemnation  passed  on  Homer  shows  the 
ordinary  Greek  feeling  towards  him  as  the  'educator  of  Greece/ 


Education  in  Greece.  n 


the  poems  of  Theognis  is  only  a  school  selection  from  his  works1. 
The  study  of  poetry  was  not  only  made  to  exercise  the  voice  and 
the  memory,  but  since  the  poems  chiefly  dealt  with  the  old  my- 
thology, they  taught  what  was  to  the  Greek  of  early  times  at  once 
religion,  philosophy,  and  history. 

Turning  from  the  literary2  to  the  scientific  side  we  do  not  find 
much  to  record.  Counting  was  taught  either  by  the  fingers,  or  on 
the  abacus,  by  means  of  pebbles  8.  The  unit  of  notation  on  the 
abacus  was  5,  derived  from  the  fingers,  and  the  whole  system  was 
far  more  complicated  than  ours,  from  the  absence  of  the  symbol  o. 
The  four  simple  rules  seem  to  have  been  the  limit  of  ordinary 
study  in  this  direction.  Geometry  was  esteemed  as  an  «  exact  ' 
branch  of  knowledge,  but  not  ordinarily  taught  ;  in  this  respect 
Plato  considered  that  the  Greeks  might  imitate  the  Egyptians, 
amongst  whom  it  was  commonly  learnt  4. 

Such  was  the  intellectual  training  of  the  young  Greek.  The 
range  of  study  was  not  wide;  it  could  not  be  so.  Science  did 
not  exist  ;  the  acquisition  of  languages  was  not  desired  ;  history 
and  geography  were  the  history  and  geography  of  his  own  land. 
Written  books  were  scarce,  most  of  the  teaching  was  done  orally, 
and  more  reliance  was  placed  on  the  memory.  If  Plato  was  right 
in  emphasizing  the  advantage  of  the  spoken  over  the  written 
word  6,  Greek  education  was  in  one  respect  superior  to  more 
modern  systems. 

§  5  EDUCATION  IN  ^oixn*^.    (/3)  Music  AND  DRAWING. 


3.p'  ot>v,  %v  y  J-yey,  S)  T\avxoy,  TOVTW  tvata  irvfuturdnj   %   kv 
ttd\icrra  KaraStxrai  «s  TO  tfroi  TTJS  <faxW  *>  r€  foQ^os  itcu  ij  &pfwri 

'Solemn  and  divine  harmonies  recreate  and  compose  our  travailed  spirits,  and,  if 
wise  men  and  prophets  be  not  extremely  out,  have  a  great  power  over  dispositions 
and  manners,  to  make  them  gentle  from  rustic  harshness  aod  distempered  passions.'  — 
MILTON. 

If  we  are  inclined  to  wonder  at  the  prominence  of  gymnastic 
in  Greek  education,  the  extraordinary  importance  attached  to 
music  strikes  us  as  still  more  astonishing.  We  shall  see  after- 
wards the  influence  on  character  ascribed  to  it  by  Plato  ;  and  this 
view  is  not  peculiar  to  him,  but  was  shared  largely  by  the  Greek 
public.  Music  was  not  an  'extra  subject:'  both  singing  and 
instrumental  music  were  part,  and  a  large  part,  of  an  ordinary 
education.  Instruction  in  music  went  on  either  during  the  same 
years  6  that  the  boy  was  going  to  the  6ida<7KaAtu>z>  or  later.  The 

1  Vide  Mahaffy,  Old  Greek  Education,  ch.  v.  I  ought  to  acknowledge  the  use  I 
have  made,  in  this  and  other  places,  of  Professor  Mahaffy's  book 

*  As  to  grammar  in  our  sense  of  the  word  it  could  not  have  been  taught,  for  it 
hardly  existed  before  the  time  of  Aristotle:  vide  Arist,  de  Interpretatione.  Ar,  Nub. 
66a,  etc. 

3  Ar.  Vesp.  656  mentions  both  kinds  :  \ofiaai  ^auXcvs  >u)  ^<j>oe»  <iAX'  dvd  x«po$ 

4  Plat.  Laws  817.  •  Plat.  Phaedrus. 

6  Plat.  Laws  809  F  need  not  be  referring  to  the  actual  practice  about  learning 
music. 


j  2        Theory  and  Practice  of  A  ncient  Education. 

lyre  was  the  instrument  most  commonly  learnt,  and  /adaptor?}?  is 
the  general  term  used  for  a  music  master1.  The  flute2  was 
fashionable  at  one  time,  but,  according  to  the  story,  Alcibiades 
thought  that  flute  playing  was  not  becoming  to  his  appearance, 
and  his  example  sent  it  out  of  fashion.  Plato  enumerates  six 
modes  of  Greek  music — Audinri,  fu£oAi/6ior£  o-vj>ro*'oAv8i(rri.  'I corf, 
tfrpvy/.oTt',  Aa^um'.  The  Lydian  and  Ionian  he  condemns  as  soft 
(/uaAcuai),  the  other  kinds  of  Lydian  as  mournful  (0/wjz/wtetj),  whilst 
the  Dorian  and  Phrygian  are  manly.  Aristotle  in  criticising  this 
decision  says  that  the  Phrygian  mode  was  too  exciting,  and  should 
have  been  proscribed 3.  Of  these  modes  we  may  say,  with  Plato, 
TauTci  es  A(ijua>z>a  <ba£€/3A?j<r0a>.  Even  to  those  who  are  well  ac- 
quainted with  modern  music  the  subject  of  Greek  music  is 
extremely  obscure,  but  we  know  that  it  differed  widely  from  ours 
and  would  not  be  appreciated  by  a  modern  ear. 

Of  the  songs  which  were  taught  we  have  not  many  notices :  the 
usual  subject  seems  to  have  been  some  incident  in  the  national 
mythology,  or  the  celebration  of  the  praises  of  a  goddess  or  a 
hero4 ;  in  the  Dorian  mode,  which  was  held,  by  the  old  school  at 
all  events,  to  be  the  true  national  music  of  Greece  5. 

ypcu/uK?},  or  drawing  and  painting,  is  spoken  of  by  Aristotle  as 
not  being  universally  taught,  and  probably  was  rare  in  the  fifth 
century  B.C. :  as  to  the  method  of  teaching  we  have  no  information. 
From  the  fact  that  the  word  faypcufria  is  extended  to  painting  in 
general  we  see  that  figure  painting  was  the  first  to  come  into 
vogue,  and  this  was  chiefly  confined  to  painting  on  vases :  it  is 
quite  possible  that  only  geometrical  drawing  was  taught,  except  to 
those  who  intended  to  devote  themselves  to  art. 


^  6.  (i)  EDUCATION  OF  CHARACTER  AND  MANNERS 
INDIRECT  EDUCATION. 

What  is  the  education  of  the  generality  of  the  world  ?  Reading  a  parcel  of  books? 
No.  Restraint  of  discipline,  emulation,  examples  of  virtue  and  justice.'  —  BURKE. 

*  Afterwards  parents  send  their  children  to  teachers.,  and  bid 
them  Took  after  their  manners  more  carefully  than  after  their 
.letters  and  their  music6.5  This  education  of  manners  was  carried 
on  both  at  home  and  at  school,  and  a  certain  quietness  of  behaviour 
.ind  respect  to  elders  (evKotrpfa  oidu?)  were  looked  for  from  Greek 
children.  They  were  to  be  *  seen  and  not  heard7,'  to  walk  quietly 

1  Plat.  Protag.  327,  Ar.  Nub.  964  (Ira  &a&fciv  \v  rcuffiv  6Sois  «vra«T<ws  Is  ttiOapiffrov. 

2  The  Greek  ovXo?  was  not  identical  with  our  'flute'  (irAjry/avXoy). 

3  Arist.  Pol.  viii.  (v.)  5. 

1  Ar.  Nub.  966  dr'  av  vpopaOeiv  5<r//  i&tayxtv  .  ,  .  ]  %  HoAAaSa  ittpatiroXiv  Sttv&v  % 


6  Ibid,  rbv  dp/iormi'  ty  o!  vanpe*  napiSwav.     Cf.  Plat.  Laches  188  D  ' 
apfiovia. 

•  Plat.  Protag.  326. 

7  Ar.  Nub.  963  wpwrov  p\v  iSct  weufos  <pwv^v  ypv^nvros  wMv  d*ov<rcu. 


Education  in  Greece.  13 


in  the  streets1,  to  stand  up  in  the  presence  of  elders2,  not  to 
contradict  their  parents,  or  to  call  their  father  *  lapetus  '  (Old 
Father  Time)3.  Then  there  were  rules  prescribed  for  eating4, 
what  dishes  to  eat,  and  which  hand  to  use  in  eating.  When  they 
had  reached  the  stage  of  early  manhood  they  were  not  to  consider 
themselves  the  equals  of  their  elders  :  in  Sparta  men  under  thirty 
did  not  enter  the  agora,  and  at  Athens  there  prevailed  a  feeling 
against  their  making  themselves  conspicuous  in  the  agora  or  the 
law  courts  5* 

,Qood  parents  no  doubt  were  anxious  for  the  morality  of  their 
children,  but  we  hear  little  of  the  influence  of  the  mother,  and 
this  is  the  natural  consequence  of  the  position  of  women  in  Greece. 
There  were  dangers,  as  we  have  seen,  in  the  gymnasium  and  the 
palaestra,  with  which  the  law  attempted  to  deal,  but  apparently  in 
vain.  Care  had  to  be  taken  in  the  clroice  of  a  ypa^/maTtorr/?,  and 
even  more  in  selecting  a  TratSayiwyo?,  with  whom  the  boy  was 
naturally  brought  into  close  contact6.  In  some  cases  the  law 
stepped  in  to  aid  morality:  in  the  prohibition  of  loiterers  in  the 
gymnasia,  in  certain  regulations  about  the  hours  of  opening  and 
closing  schools,  and  the  age  and  minimum  number  of  pupils7, 
and  in  disqualifying  from  public  life  those  who  had  been  guilty  of 
immoral  practices8.  Plato  compares  the  state  to  a  writing-master 
tracing  out  the  laws  for  the  guidance  of  the  young9  ;  but  we  have 
unfortunately  only  too  much  evidence  to  show  that  in  the  direction 
of  morality  the  sanction  of  law  was  inadequate,  whilst  the  sanction 
of  religion  did  not  operate  at  all. 

In  the  general  formation  of  character  we  can  see  the  effect  of 
several  Greek  institutions.  The  theatre  was  a  powerful  moral 
agent  10,  uniting  in  a  way  the  power  of  the  pulpit  and  of  the  stage  -, 
the  influence  of  politics  came  more  home  to  a  greater  proportion 
of  Greeks  than  is  possible  in  a  large  state  :  a  young  man  could 
hardly  avoid  contact  with  the  ecclesia  and  dikasteries  of  a 
democratically  governed  city.  On  the  aesthetic  side  there  were 
numerous  festivals,  splendid  temples  and  an  art  developed  under 
their  shadow,  such  as  contributed  to  make  Athens  the  c  school  of 
Greece11.' 

AT.  Nub.  964,  quoted  above,  p.  12,  note  i.   Cf.  P  hit.  Ed.  Puer. 

Ibid.  990  /feu  rStv  &O.KOJV  rof?  irpfffftvrfpots  vnaviffraaOai  irpoffiovffiv. 

Ibid.  998  friJS*  dvTttirfw  ry  irarpl  pijtitv,  7*178'  'l&irfrov  KaXtaavra  \  nvijff 

IT]      j}Ai*W. 

Plut.  Ed.  Puer.  7,  Ar.  Nub.  981-3. 

Plat.  Lycurg.  8,  Isocr.  Areopag.  202  complains  of  .a  change  in  this. 
Plut.  Ed.  Puer.  7,  Terent.  Andr.  i.  i.  24,  Plaut.  Bacch.  iii.  i.  and  passing 
Aesch.  Timarch.  §§  34,  35  irpurrov  kvopoOtrijaav  vcpl  TTJ?  ffaxppoffvvijs  r&v 


Ibid.  §  48  (dv  eraiptyry  %  wfvopffVfifvos  77. 
Piot.  326. 

10  Lucian,  Anach.  22  /<rcu  Is  rb  Qtarpov  <rvy6,yoi>r(s  avravs 

11  Thuc.  ii.  41  [vveXojv  rt  Ac^w  rty  vatrav  *6\w  'FAAaSos  iraiStvffiv  ttvai.     Cf.  Isocr. 
Antidosis  295  aarv  rijs  'EAA<i5os. 


14        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

§  7.  EDUCATION  IN  GREEK  STATES  OTHER  THAN  ATHENS- 

Our  attention  is  so  much  fixed  on  Athens  and  Athenian  life 
that  we  are  apt  to  forget  the  existence  of  other  Greek  states  :  this 
arises  partly  from  the  superiority  of  Athens  in  art  and  culture,  in 
statesmanship  and  oratory  ;  partly  from  the  paucity  of  materials 
which  survive  to  throw  light  on  the  condition  of  other  parts  of 
Greece.  Yet,  though  Athens  gives  us  the  best  type,  because  it 
gives  us  the  highest  development  l  of  Greek  education,  we  must 
remember  that  the  Athenians  were  but  a  small  proportion  of  the 
population  of  Greece,  and  that  though  there  was  a  certain  simi- 
larity2 between  the  systems  of  education  prevailing  in  Greece, 
there  were  also  considerable  differences,  and  even  startling  con- 
trasts. The  most  startling  contrast  to  Athens  in  this  as  in  other 
points  was  presented  by  Sparta.  Sparta  complied  with,Aristotle's 
axiom  that  the  educational  system  of  a  state  must  be  relative  to 
its  polity  3,  and  the  aim  of  the  Spartan  polity  was  excellence  in 
war4;  the  leisure  (o-xoArj)  which  others  might  employ  in  culture 
or  philosophy  was  to  the  Spartan  only  an  interval  between  two 
campaigns.  At  Athens  there  was  indeed  some  military  training, 
because  Athenian  armies,  in  common  with  those  of  every  Greek 
state,  were  citizen  armies  ;  but  it  was  the  boast  of  Pericles  that 
the  burden  was  a  light  one,  not  interfering  seriously  with  the 
general  training  or  ordinary  pursuits  of  a  young  citizen6,  whilst  as 
the  result  the  Athenian  soldier  was  no  less  brave  than  his  Pelopon- 
nesian  adversary.  An  Athenian  youth  (<f<j»;/3os)  served  for  a  short 
time,  after  reaching  the  age  of  sixteen  or  thereabouts,  in  the  frontier 
guard  (TrcpiTToAot)  6,  which  occupied  the  fortresses  in  the  North  of 
Attica,  but  did  not  engage  in  actual  battle.  They  were  subject  to 
drill  and  discipline,  but  there  was  no  very  exacting  system  of 
training;  the  &£T;£OI  as  a  class  do  not  appear  till  after  the  Pelo- 
ponnesian  War,  and  then  they  soon  change  their  military  charac- 
ter. But  to  return  to  Sparta  :  we  saw  that  efficiency  in  war  was 
the  great  aim,  and  we  soon  perceive  that  to  secure  this  no  inter- 
ference with  individual  liberties  or  tastes  was  thought  too  harsh. 
It  was  this  thorough  supervision  by  the  state  that  won  the  admir- 
ation of  Plato  and  Aristotle7.  At  the  head  of  the  educational 
system  was  the  Trcu&oVojxo?  8,  whose  powers  were  extremely  wide: 

1  oTox  tKaxtrov  fan  rip  ytvtfftms  rt\f09fiffrjs,  TOiavrrfv  <j>a.fttv  elvai  TT)K  <f>lffiv  (Ar.  PoL 
i.  2).  a  Theophr.  Char,  prooem.  vdvrtov  6/xo/cus  tr«nai£(v^tv<uv  rwv  'EAA^tyf. 


8  Ar.  Pol.  viii.  (v.)  l  bti  rrpfc  rv  vo\tT<'mv  rratdtvfffdat. 
4  Ibid.  ii.  •roiyapovr  lok^ovro  fAv  nobffiovvrfs,  oiwuAoiro  3c  (ipyvtvovrtr,  Sid  rd  /z^ 
SvvacrOcu  ffxoA.dfftf.  Miiller  (Dorians)  claims  that  rd  rfaaapnv  generally  was  their  aim. 

6  Thuc.  ii.  39  KOI  iv  rais  TraiJ5«'a«  ol  fttv  kmrr&vtp  &o*Tjffti  fvQfo  vloi  ovrts  ri  fafytiov 
fttrepxovrai,  Jy/Mtv  Sc  avtifievtaj  ^(urotfjitvot  avf>tv  Ifooov  t-nl  rods  (VoiraA«fs   KtvSvvovs 

Cupovptv.  *  Demosth.  in  Conon.  gives  a  picture  of  the  life  among  the  irtpivoXoi. 

7  See  esp.  Ar.  Eth.  x.  10.  13  :  except  in  Sparta  a  man  lives  As  &ov\tTtu  KvK\aimieu>s 


8  Xen.  de  Rep.  Lac.  ii.  6  5e  Avtcovpyos  avri  rnv  p\v  Ifita  txajyrov  watSa'ywyovy  3oi5\ows 
av8pa  (ir^orrjoe  Kpareiv  avrutv  ...  6s  5^  «at  irai8f>vop.os  ftaktiraf    rovrov  8t 
t-rroii)ffc  KOI  dQpoifav  TOVS  iraidas  KCU  iiriattonovvTa  ti  TIS  fiaOwvpyoir)  KO\&£(IV 


Education  in  Greece.  15 


and  he  was  provided  with  a  staff  of  assistants  called 
and  fUKrrcyxtyo/Doc.  The  life  of  the  new-born  infant  was  decided, 
we  are  told,  not  by  the  father,  as  elsewhere-  in  Greece,  but  by  a 
council  of  elders1  ;  at  the  age  of  seven  the  child  was  taken  from 
its  parents  and  put  under  regular  public  education  (dywyr;)  ;  boys 
were  distributed  into  ay/Acu  or  bands,  and  played  and  lived  and 
were  trained  together.  Letters  were  taught  as  a  concession  ($I>€KCL 
XpeiW),  but  the  rest  of  the  education  consisted  in  strict  discipline 
and  physical  training.  At  the  age  of  twelve  this  discipline  became 
stricter  2,  and  so  they  entered  on  regular  military  service.  Lycur- 
gus,  says  Xenophon  3,  saw  the  value  of  the  spirit  of  rivalry  among 
the  young  ;  so  the  Ephors  appointed  three  (nTmype'rai,  and  each  of 
these  chose  out  one  hundred  €0^oi  as  an  honour,  arid  those  who 
were  not  chosen  could  challenge  those  who  had  been,  and  if  suc- 
cessful could  take  their  places.  The  Spartans  did  not  neglect 
gymnastics,  though  they  did  not  permit  boxing  and  the  pancra- 
tium; and  they  supplemented  it  by  hunting,  which  was  easily 
indulged  in  among  the  coverts  of  Taygetus.  Music  seems  to  have 
been  cultivated  at  Sparta,  especially  the  Dorian  mode,  to  which, 
we  may  believe  with  Milton4,  they  marched  into  battle.  Of 
education  elsewhere  in  Greece  we  know  next  to  nothing.  We  have 
already  seen  evidence  for  the  existence  of  schools  at  Chios,  My- 
calessus  and  Astypalaea,  and  there  is  no  doubt  that  they  existed 
all  over  Greece,  except  perhaps  in  Aetolia  and  Acarnania. 
Naturally  the  extent  of  education  varied  with  the  character  of  the. 
country  and  the  life  of  the  people  ;  in  a  state  like  Elis,  where 
country  life  prevailed,  we  should  look  for  less  culture  than  at  Cor- 
inth or  Aegina.  Thebes  had  a  reputation  for  stupidity  and  igno- 
rance6, and  Aeschines  tells  us  of  some  Thebans  who  sent  their 
sons  to  Athens,  not  being  satisfied  with  their  own  schools. 

The  Arcadians,  if  we  may  trust  Polybius,  distinguished  them- 
selves by  a  singular  zeal  for  music,  due  in  that  historian's  opinion 
to  the  necessity  of  finding  some  cultivated  pursuit  which  would 
counteract  the  rudeness  and  barbarity  arising  from  the  nature  of 
their  country  and  the  inclemency  of  their  climate6.  Accordingly 
with  them  ignorance  of  music  was  made  a  subject  of  censure, 
though  ignorance  of  anything  else  was  easily  pardoned7.'  And 
Polybius  adds  that  the  Cynaethi,  who  were  Arcadians  by  race, 
differed  from  them  in  having  more  barbarous  manners,  and  he 
attributes  this  difference  to  their  neglect  of  musical  studies. 


Pint.  Lycurg.  16  rSnr  <pv\trwv 
Ib.  SifT(\ovv  &vcv  \triavQs. 
Xen.  de  Rep.  Lac.  iv. 

Par.  Lost,  '  In  solemn  phalanx  to  the  Dorian  mood  of  flutes  and  soft  recorders* 
Pint,  de  Herod.  Malign.  31  (dypoiteia  ical  piao^oyia). 
Hist.  iv.  xxi.  1  '  dfwpovvTft  rty  rStv  j)0wv  avarypiav  ijns  avrois  irapfwerai  5«i  T^K 
rov  itfpitxovros  ifivxpArrjTa  Kal  ffTvyvorijra  r^v  Kara  TO  ti\(iarov  iv  rofs  r6ir<ns  Ivdp- 
rav,  $  £wt£onoiova0cu  wf<pvKapfv  ir&vrts  AvQp<uiT<n  nar'  dvayKTjv. 
Ibid.  iv.  XX.  II   Kal  ruv  ^v  aX\<ov  na.07fpa.Twv  upvr)0r)v<u  r&  A")  "f.vwfTKtiv  ovdtv 
faovvrw    TJJV  ye  ^v  tpjfyv  ovr'  dpfrjd^vat  Swavrai,  Sict  TO  MOT*  ^yay/wyv  iravras 


1 6        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient,  Education. 
§  8.  FEMALE  EDUCATION. 

'Nunqnam  aliud  natura  aliud  sapientia  dicit.'— JUVENAL. 

One  of  the  most  striking  differences  between  the  Greece  of 
Homer  and  the  Greece  of  Euripides  is  in  the  position  of  women. 
In  the  place  of  Andromache  we  have  some  nameless  and  unnoticed 
housewife  \  or — at  once  a  consequence  and  a  contrast — a  brilliant 
Aspasia.  In  general,  girls  must  have  received  what  instruction 
they  got  from  their  nurses  and  their  mothers ;  for  them  to  go  to 
school  out  of  the  house  would  have  been  thought  indecorous.  The 
Hetaerae  enjoyed  greater  freedom,  and  in  some  cases  obtained  a 
'  higher  education  '  by  conversations  with  philosophers  or  poets,  as 
probably  did  Aspasia  by  her  intercourse  with  Anaxagoras  and 
Pericles. 

We  hear  of  no  gymnastic  training  for  Athenian  women  ;  but 
the  participation  of  maidens,  if  not  of  married  women,  in  the 
Spartan  palaestra  was  a  remarkable  feature  in  their  system.  They 
exercised  in  the  presence  of  young  men  2,  and  in  a  state  of  yvjuvoTTj?, 
though  what  is  denoted  by  that  is  a  matter  of  dispute 3.  They 
practised  not  only  running,  but  wrestling,  and,  according  to  Pau- 
sanias,  there  existed  at  Olympia  a  representation  of  a  Spartan 
woman  (Cynisca)  competing  in  a  chariot  race.  To  this  training 
was  partly  due  the  large  stature  and  good  physique  of  Spartan 
women  4. 

Other  instances  of  women  taking  part  in  gymnastic  are  found  at 
Elis  and  Chios ;  and  the  maidens  of  Corcyra  imitated  Nausicaa  in 
playing  at  ball 5. 

§  9.  HIGHER  EDUCATION  :  (a)  THE  SOPHISTS  AND  RHETORS. 


/fat  Kan)y6pow  tpov  ov&lv  oAi;0f'y,  ws  tarl  r«  ^Soncp&rrjy  <ro<pfc  &vrjpt  r&  rt 
,  «at  TO  tnri)  ffjs  vavra  (it'cfqrtyJNiw  *ai  rov  Jjfrrw  \6yov  Kpfirrv  iroiwv. 
—PLATO,  Apologia,  18  B. 

Powerful  satire  may  sometimes  be  mistaken  for  history,  and 
the  mistake  is  more  easily  made  when  the  satire  is  evidently 
earnest,  and  there  is  little  else  to  guide  us.  Few  satires  have  ever 
been  written,  none  perhaps  have  ever  been  put  on  the  stage,  which 
excel  in  brilliancy  and  bitterness  the  Clouds  of  Aristophanes. 
The  aim  of  the  play  is  to  ridicule  and  attack  Socrates  and  the 
Sophists,  or  rather  the  Sophists  as  personified  by  Socrates.  In 
the  eyes  of  Aristophanes  and  the  conservatives  of  the  day,  Socrates 

1  Thuc.  ii.  45  rys  r*  7^  inmpxwtrrjs  Qvalw  ^  \fipoai  ytvfffOau  fA(ya\ij  vfttv  $ 
8o£o,  leal  i$s  Av  <*r'  l\a\utTw  &ptrfjs  vipi  %  ipcr/ou  iv  rots  apffffft  *:A«os  i-f. 

a  Plut.  Lye.  14  oit&iv  %vov  tftifft  r&s  yvftvds  rf  iroprrcv€tv  ical  6(  \do6<u  ««?  ^Seiy  ruv 


w  vw. 

3  Plat.  Rep.  viii.  seems  to  have  understood  it  as  nakedness.   Roman  writers  translate 
it  by  'nudus.'     Cf.  Prop.  iii.  14.  3  '  inter  luctantes  nuda  puella  viros.' 
4 


Cf.  Lampito,  Arist.  Lysistrata. 
*  Athenaeus. 


Education  in  Greece.  17 

was  the  most  prominent  exponent  of  the  new  critical  and  indi- 
vidualistic school  of  thought ;  a  school  which  was  unsatisfied  with 
the  national  mythology  and  accepted  tradition,  and  which,  whilst 
aiming  at  success  in  practical  life,  was  reckless  of  morality  and 
truth,  if  indeed  it  allowed  their  existence.  That  Aristophanes 
identified  Socrates  with  the  Sophists  need  not  surprise  us  ;  they 
had  much  in  common,  and  their  points  of  difference  were  for  the 
most  part  the  least  obvious  and  superficial ;  to  the  average  Athe- 
nian Socrates  was  probably  the  most  remarkable  and  eccentric  of 
the  Sophists ;  just  as  to  the  average  Jew  a  greater  than  Socrates 
was  but  one  of  the  Scribes  and  Pharisees  T,  though  the  few  could 
discern  that  he  taught  '  with  authority.'  We,  however,  know  in 
what  way  Socrates  differed  from  the  Sophists,  and  how  unjust  to 
him  it  was  that  he  should  be  caricatured  as  taking  fees  from  his 
pupils2,  and  devoting  himself  to  physical  science3,  or  as  *  cor- 
rupting youth'  by  inculcating  Atheism*,  and  by  teaching  them  to 
sacrifice  truth  to  success6.  And  our  certainty  that  Aristo- 
phanes was  wrong  in  identifying  Socrates  with  the  Sophists  might 
lead  us  to  suspect  his  picture  of  the  sophistic  teaching,  even  were 
we  to  acquit  him  of  wilful  exaggeration. 

We  need  not  here  enter  into  the  controversy  which  has  raged 
round  the  words  Sophist  and  <TO<J>I<TTUTJ  :  we  have  only  to  trace  the 
effect  of  the  Sophists  on  Greek  education.  They  undertook  to  give 
more  advanced  instruction  than  the  ypa/u/zartcfTot  offered;  they 
taught  for  money  6,  and  sometimes  their  fees  were  very  high,  and 
could  only  be  afforded  by  the  rich 7.  Many  of  them  were  strict 
about  their  fees,  and  insisted  upon  their  being  paid  in  advance ; 
thus  Isocrates  is  able  to  laugh  at  them  for  mistrusting  their  own 
teaching  of  virtue,  since  they  would  not  trust  for  their  fees  the 
pupils  whom  they  had  undertaken  to  teach  virtue 8.  Protagoras 
followed  a  different  practice,  allowing  his  pupils  to  pay  whatever 
they  thought  his  instruction  was  worth8.  The  comparison  now 
frequently  drawn  between  the  Sophists  and  the  crammers  of  our 
own  day  is  in  many  respects  a  just  one  ;  with  the  development  of 
political  and  social  life  at  Athens,  public  speaking  in  the  courts 
and  the  Assembly  became  of  great  importance,  and  the  old  educa- 
tion was  felt  to  be  inadequate.  The  Sophists  came  forward  to 
fill  the  gap  •  they  taught  rhetoric  for  the  manner  of  the  speeches, 
and  ordinary  subjects  to  supply  the  matter.  New  theories  were  in 
the  air :  the  Sophists  could  put  a  man  in  possession  of  the  very 
newest  ideas.  Generally  they  travelled  about  Greece,  staying  for 

This  point  is  well  brought  out  by  the  author  of  'Ecce  Homo.' 
Nub.  97  oCroi  S&aaitova',  apyvpiov  yv  TIS  Si  Si,  \fyovra  VIKO.V. 
Ibid.  225  atpoftarw  nal  nffjuppovw  TOP  "HXioc. 

Ibid,  367  iroibs  Ztvs  ;  ou  /«)  \T)prjottS'  OVK  tffri  Ztvs:    247  6(oi  \  iJfuV  v<5/ii<r//  ot>tc  cirri. 
Ibid.  316  ovpAvtai  Nf</>f  Aru,  /xcyciAat  Otat  avftpaatv  d/ryof?  j  aiwtp  yvuprfv  K.ii  8ia\(£tv 
fta   vow  •fffiiv  irapixovffiv  j  #ai  rc/xiTCtai'  teat  -ntpiXftar  teal  Kpovffw  KCU  ttara\r)\f;tv 


Plat.  Rep.  i.  Thrasymachus  ia  made  to  say  dAAd  W$  apyvptov. 
Pint,  de  Ed.  Puer.  7.  , 

Isocrates,  *ar<J  ^.o^iaruv  §  7.  »  Plat.  Protag.  328. 

C 


1 8        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

short  periods  at  different  places ;  sometimes  they  got  their  pupils 
to  follow  them  about.  They  were  a  profession  with  many  ideas 
and  tendencies  in  common,  but  not  in  any  sense  a  school :  on  the 
metaphysical  side  different  sophists  held  widely  divergent  views, 
though  their  general  tendency  was  sceptical.  Jn  morals  they  main- 
tained the  *  conventional'  theory:  'fire  burns  both  here  and  in 
Persia,'  but  morality  is  the  creation  of  vo'/mo?.  In  spite  of  this  they 
were  practically  sound,  as  we  see  in  Prodicus*  moral  work — the 
Choice  of  Hercules.  The  name  O-O<£IOT?JS  was  not  generally  one  of 
contempt :  long  afterwards  it  was  revived  to  designate  the  chief 
educational  post  at  Athens.  If  they  did  not  pander  to  public 
opinion,  they  did  not  rise  above  it :  in  this  way  they  have  been 
well  compared  to  a  modern  newspaper,  which,  while  wishing  to 
improve  the  public  mind,  has  to  consider  its  circulation.  Plato 
confesses  that  society  is  the  great  sophist :  the  o-otfucmj?  suits  his 
opinions  to  society :  his  <ro^ta  is  a  knowledge  of  the  varying 
moods  of  that  '  great  Leviathan/  the  people  *.  The  objection  to 
them  felt  by  Plato  and  Socrates  was  partly  the  taking  of  money : 
partly  their  method  of  cramming2  as  opposed  to  sound  and  rational 
education.  Isocrates,  himself  a  philosophic  rhetorician,  gives  us 
his  views  in  his  speech  •  Against  the  Sophists/  where  he  attacks 
three  classes  of  them3. — (i)  The  Eristic  sophists  (ol  we^l  ras  fy&av 
dtarpl/Sovrcs),  who  promise  more  than  they  can  perform,  professing 
to  impart  absolute  knowledge  (^TrtoTTJjwj)  to  their  pupils,  (a)  The 
teachers  of  political  discourse(ot  TOVS  tfoAirtfcovs  Ao'yovs  viu<r\vovij.<vm), 
who  train  men  for  public  life.  They  do  not  aim  at  truth,  but  profess  to 
impart  an  toitmfru;  Ao'yow  and  make  men  rhetors  without  taking  ac- 
count either  of  natural  gifts  ($v<ns)  or  experience  (ejAtfei/oi'a).  In 
reality  a  speech  is  a  work  of  creation  (noirjriKov  irpayjxa)  demanding 
imagination  and  originality — not  merely  mechanical  (rfray/n^ 
T^XW0  &*ve  a  man  a^  tne  rutes  *n  tne  world,  he  may  not  be  able 
to  apply  them  to  the  particular  case.  (3)  The  writers  of  regular 
treatises  on  rhetoric,  like  Korax  and  Tisius  in  Sicily  (01  ras  re'x»>as 
ypd\l/avT(s):  such  men  teach  litigiousnessand  greed  (?ro  \wrpayjmoffvm; 
and  TrAeove&'a),  not  justice :  for  there  is  no  system  (r^x^)  which 
can  make  the  bad  man  just* 

The  early  Sophists  were  teachers  of  things  in  general :  they 
taught  with  the  object  of  enabling  their  pupils  to  attain  success  in 
life,  and  success  at  this  period  was  usually  obtained  by  effective 
speaking.  Thus  rhetoric  became  the  most  important  feature  of 
their  teaching :  it  was  to  this  branch  that  Gorgias  specially  de- 
voted himself,  whilst  Protagoras  was  more  a  political,  and  Prodicus 
an  ethical  teacher.  Both  Protagoras  and  Gorgias  treated  meta- 
physical questions,  and  we  have  preserved  to  us  their  dicta  on  the 
impossibility  of  knowledge  in  general  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the 

1  Plat.  Rep.  492  C. 

2  Ibid.  518  C  <t>a<ri  wov  ofa  cvofoip  kv  rfj  \pv)$  fcrior^pifr  <r<J>«V  4vr(0«v<H— whereas 
education  is  a  irtptayaryrj. 

1  Isocrates,  ttara  r£n>  'Softartav  |§  1-17. 


Education  in  Greece.  19 

existence  of  gods  in  particular1.  In  pursuing  these  problems  they 
paid  attention  to  logic,  then  in  its  infancy,  and  at  the  mercy  of 
every  verbal  quibble. 

After  the  first  generation  of  Sophists  we  get  a  division  of  labour 
among  the  professors  of  higher  education  :  on  the  one  hand  we 
have  the  school  of  rhetoric  with  a  master  like  Isocrates;  on  the 
other,  the  school  of  philosophy  under  a  Plato  or  a  Speusippus. 
We  will  see  what  Isocrates  tells  us  of  his  own  theory  of  culture 
(0iAo<ro0fo)  in  one  of  his  so-called  '  speeches  V 

He  starts  from  the  same  point  at  which  he  left  off  in  his  speech 
against  the  Sophists  :  no  art  can  make  good  men  out  of  the  icaxois 
n€(/>wKOTfis,  but  still  men  may  improve  themselves  if  they  are  ambi- 
tious and  wish  to  speak  well  and  persuade  an  audience,  for  they 
will  choose  noble  themes,  and  will  themselves  be  influenced  by 
them  :  in  short  ;  the  professor  of  persuasion  will  cultivate  virtue 
because  virtue  is  persuasive  3  :  '  his  ctxora  and  T«/w}pta  are  only 
good  for  a  single  occasion,  but  a  good  reputation  is  always  valu- 
able, {Isocrates  forgets,  we  may  remark,  to  notice  that  it  is  the 
reputation  for  virtue,  not  the  virtue  itself,  which  would  be  of  use 
in  this  way.)  Some  men,  he  continues  (§  285),  think  philosophy 
useless,  meaning  by  it  the  TcporoAoyta  of  the  early  philosophers 
(<ro<£iora£),  and  forgetting  its  practical  and  political  side  :  '  and 
you'  (turning  to  the  Athenian  public)  'keep  your  sons  away  from 
the  best  education,  and  so  they  spend  their  time  in  drinking  bouts 
and  useless  amusements  and  the  excitement  of  gambling-hells 
(<7Kt/3a<J»€ia),  or  even  in  the  training-schools  of  the  avA^r/uSey,  and 
thus  they  lose  all  self-restraint,  whereas  a  man  must  govern  him- 
self before  he  can  govern  his  own  household  or  his  fellow-citizens.' 
*  Men,  too.  are  inconsistent  (291)  in  admiring  those  who  are  good 
speakers  by  nature,  and  condemning  those  who  make  them- 
selves good  speakers  by  study.  The  latter  are  really  the  most 
praiseworthy  :  it  is  this  iratbtia  which  most  distinguishes  Hellenes 
from  barbarians  :  more  especially  is  Athens  the  school  of  the  orator, 
giving  the  greatest  prizes  and  affording  the  best  opportunities4. 
The  language  of  Athens  is  most  widespread  ;  among  its  citizens 
there  is  more  versatility  (cvrpawMa)  and  culture  (</>iAoAoyt'a)  :  for 
you  to  condemn  education  would  be  as  absurd  as  for  the  Spartans 
to  condemn  war;  it  would  be  treason  to  the  national  idea  —  to 
that  idea  which  by  the  results  it  has  brought  forth  causes  men  to 
say  that  Athens  is  the  only  city  in  Greece  ;  other  aggregates  of 
men  are  but  villages.  ' 

The  salient  feature  of  the  system  proposed  by  Isocrates  is  that, 
though  by  no  means  a  narrow  one,  it  subordinates  everything  to 
proficiency  in  speaking5.  He  would  wish  his  pupils  to  be  both 


1  B.  g.  vtpl  $fovs  obit  fxtu  «HMw  *fr«  daiv,  €?T€  p*i,  and  *  Nothing  can  be  known  : 
if  it  were  known  it  could  not  be  communicated.' 

2  vepl  cwTitooriox  §§  270-302  (written  in  353  B.C.). 

3  Jebb,  Selections  from  Attic  Orators,  p.  256. 
*  - 


-a&vrtuv  TWV  Swaptvoav  Xtyetv 

*  Cf.  Quintilian,  post. 

c  a 


2O        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 


virtuous  and  well  informed,  but  the  virtue  is  to  add  weight  to  his 
words,  and  the  information  is  to  supply  material  for  his  speeches, 
and  to  prevent  him  from  falling  into  mistakes  in  them.  Isocrates' 
scheme  of  education  would  have  tended  to  produce  orators  like 
himself-  and  Isocrates,  we  can  see  from  his  numerous  remaining 
works,  reached  the  height  of  diffuseness  and  artificiality  in  rhe- 
toric. By  the  smoothness  and  symmetry  of  his  clauses,  by  the 
studied  combination  of  sounds  and  avoidance  of  hiatus,  by  the 
arrangement  of  his  transitions,  Isocrates  elaborated  a  style  more 
artificial  than  any  of  his  predecessors  in  Greece  and  more  forcibly 
opposed  to  the  greater  naturalness  and  simplicity  of  modern 
eloquence.  Isocrates  aimed  at  political,  not  at  juristic,  eloquence ; 
but  it  is  only  as  a  rhetorician,  not  as  a  politician  or  an  orator, 
that  he  survives. 

Isocrates  appears  to  have  given  a  regular  course  of  teaching,  and 
to  have  attracted  pupiis  from  all  parts  of  Greece  ;  in  fact  he  formed 
a  school  somewhat  analogous  to  the  schools  of  philosophy  which 
became  so  prominent  at  Athens  in  the  fourth  century  before 
Christ. 

§  10.   HIGHER  EDUCATION  :    (/3)   THE  SCHOOLS  OF 
PHILOSOPHY. 

'Within  the  walls  then  view 
The  schools  of  ancient  sages :   his  who  bred 
Great  Alexander  to  subdue  the  world, 
Lyceum  there  and  painted  Stoa  next.' — MILTON,  Parad.  Reg.  iv. 

Before  the  time  of  Plato  the  teaching  of  philosophy  was  frag- 
mentary and  irregular  :  one  or  other  of  the  Sophists  might  indeed 
devote  a  whole  course  of  lectures  to  philosophy,  but  they  taught 
many  subjects  besides,  and  they  wandered  about  Greece  from  city 
to  city.  Socrates  confined  his  teaching  to  Athens,  but  not  to  any 
one  spot :  he  preferred  to  avail  himself,  as  opportunity  offered,  of 
the  gymnasium  \  the  banquet 2,  the  casual  meeting  in  the  street 3, 
for  the  exercise  of  his  'maieutic '  art.  And,  in  a  sense,  his  teach- 
ing was  unsystematic :  or  rather  the  system  lay  in  the  method,  not 
in  the  subject,  of  his  teaching.  Socrates  received  no  fees,  partook 
of  no  endowment,  was  under  no  state  regulation  except  that  vague 
prohibition,  which  ultimately  caused  his  ruin,  against  preaching  a 
new  religion  and  corrupting  youth.  From  this  c  voluntary  system  * 
we  can  trace  a  gradual  approach  to  a  regular  course  of  study  in 
established  schools. 

The  first  step  was  the  choice  of  a  locality.  Plato  made  the 
Academy,  one  of  the  three  gymnasia  of  Athens,  his  haunt ;  Antis- 
thenes  taught  first  in  the  Cynosarges,  then  in  the  Stoa ;  Aristotle 
settled  upon  the  Lyceum.  Next  came  the  formation  of  an  endow- 
ment. Plato's  successors  apparently  forsook  the  doctrine  of  their 
master — that  teaching  for  money  was  '  simony,'  and  the  fees  of 
pupils  formed  a  regular  source  of  income.  These  were  supple- 

1  As  in  the  Lysis.  2  Plato,  Symposium.  s  Republic. 


Education  in  Greece.  21 


merited  by  gifts  and  bequests  from  pupils  or  patrons  of  the  schools, 
and  with  the  growth  of  the  endowment  the  school  naturally  secured 
a  greater  prospect  of  permanence.  Plato  is  said  to  have  nominated 
Speusippus  as  his  successor  (6ta8oxos)  and  to  have  left  to  him  the 
land  which  he  had  secured  close  to  the  Academy.  The  heads  of 
this  and  of  the  other  schools  were  called  Scholarchs :  in  some  cases 
they  seem  to  have  been  nominated  by  their  predecessors,  in  others 
to  have  been  elected  by  the  pupils,  or  at  least  by  some  of  their 
number :  in  later  times  they  were  even  nominated  by  the  Areo- 
pagus. Each  school  maintained  its  own  doctrines,  or  rather  the 
doctrines  of  its  founder,  with  very  slight  development,  if  indeed 
they  altered  them  at  all :  Antisthenes  and  Aristotle,  both  of  them 
pupils  of  the  great  master  of  the  Academy,  establish  schools  of 
their  own  when  they  find  their  doctrines  in  divergence  from  his. 

It  was  from  these  philosophical  schools  that  there  developed 
under  Roman  rule  an  endowed  and  State-regulated  professoriate, 
which  has  been  named  by  some  writers  the  c  University  of  Athens/ 
There  were  several  different  chairs  established  and  endowed  by  the 
Emperors,  and  the  highest  post  of  all  was  that  of  the  '  Sophist,'  the 
name  thus  vindicating  itself  from  the  aspersions  of  Plato  l.  To 
this  seat  of  learning  pupils  came  in  great  numbers  from  Rome,  as 
they  were  already  doing  in  the  days  of  Cicero  and  Horace  2.  Some- 
thing is  known,  chiefly  from  Libanius,  of  the  life  of  the  students : 
they  had  their  lectures  and  their  gowns,  their  clubs  and  their  literary 
discussions  3,  their  rivalries  and  riots,  their  contempt  for  *  freshmen.' 
The  subjects  most  generally  taught  were  rhetoric  and  philosophy  : 
arid  and  barren  commentaries  on  old  philosophers,  diffuse  and  use- 
less rhetoric :  for  the  age  of  Athenian  inspiration  was  gone,  and 
amidst  the  temples  and  groves  of  Athens  a  generation  that  was 
'too  superstitious  '  was  perpetually  seeking  in  vain  to  hear  'some 
new  thing4'. 

Amongst  other  centres  of  learning  Alexandria  was  pre-eminent. 
Splendidly  equipped  with  libraries,  situated  in  the  meeting  place 
of  nations,  it  was  cosmopolitan  to  a  greater  extent  than  Athens ; 
it  became  the  home  of  research  and  of  minute  criticism ;  it  de- 
veloped a  school  to  which  we  can  trace  much  that  is  harsh  and 
obscure  and  pedantic  in  Roman  poetry.  To  Alexandria  we  owe 

1  I  found  in  April,  1885,  the  following  inscription  in  the  recently  excavated  temple 
at  Eleusis — it  is  cut  on  a  round  altar: — 

NIKATQPA3 

O  TON  TEPnN  KHPTS  KAI  EDI  TH2  KA0EAPA2  2OW2TH2 
nAOTTAPXOT  KAI  2EETOT  *IAO2O*nN 

EKFONO2. 

9  Hor.  Epp  ii.  2.  43  '  adiecere  bonae  paullo  plus  artis  Athenae.' 
8  Aulus  Gellius  (xviii.  a)  gives  us  an  account  of  a  supper  among  students  at  Athens 
at  which  many  points  of  useless  erudition  were  discussed ;  e.g.  the  meaning  of  'frustrari ' 
in  Ennius,  what  poet  uses  •  verant/  the  tense  of  '  scripserim,'  *  venerim.'     The  title  of 
Gellius's  work  is  Noctes  Atticae,  i.e.  literary  work  done  by  Athenian  'midnight  oil.' 

*  •  For  all  the  Athenians  and  strangers  which  were  there  spent  their  time  io  nothing 
else,  but  either  to  tell  or  to  hear  some  new  thing.'— Acts  xvii.  21.  For  a  fuller 
account  of  Athenian  University  life  and  an  ingenious  comparison  with  modern  Univer- 
sities, 1  may  refer  to  Mr.  Capes'  work,  entitled  University  Life  in  Ancient  Athens. 


22         Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

the  classification  of  studies  into  the  Trivium  (grammar,  rhetoric, 
dialectic)  and  the  Quadrivium  (arithmetic,  music,  astronomy, 
geometry}. 

After  Alexandria,  Rhodes  was  perhaps  the  most  frequented  of 
eastern  centres  of  education.  Tiberius  in  his  retirement  availed 
himself  of  the  rhetorical  instruction  for  which  it  was  especially 
celebrated.  In  the  West,  Massilia  kept  alive  its  Greek  traditions 
and  Greek  culture,  in  the  midst  of  a  non-Hellenic  population,  and 
we  hear  of  young  men  of  family  being  sent  thither  from  Rome  in 
the  time  of  Cicero. 

From  this  inadequate  sketch  of  later  education  in  Greece  let  us 
turn  to  examine  the  views  of  the  great  educational  theorists  of 
Greece. 

§  ii.  GREEK  THEORIES  ABOUT  EDUCATION 

fotvnr  yvtuatox  itai  iXt)6(tas  dAAo  xoAAiOV  !r<   rovruv 
Rep.  508  E. 


For  theories  about  education,  as  for  theories  in  politics  or  meta- 
physics, we  naturally  turn  to  the  master  minds  of  Greece,  to  Plato 
and  to  Aristotle.  Earlier  thinkers  had  left  isolated  utterances, 
like  Heraclitus  J,  or  gathered  round  them  followers,  like  Pythagoras, 
with  a  Tporros  piov  to  be  followed  by  those  that  came  after  •,  indeed 
the  Pythagorean  brotherhoods  were  more  than  a  dream  ;  they  be- 
came real  institutions  in  the  Greek  cities  of  Southern  Italy, 
societies  in  which  asceticism  was  mingled  with  aristocratic  ex- 
clusiveness,  societies  for  '  plain  living  and  high  thinking,'  not 
untinged  with  mysticism.  Others  too  after  Aristotle's  day  wrote 
upon  education.  Plutarch's  work  on  the  subject  has  come  down 
to  us,  and  is  characterized  by  good  sense  and  moral  earnestness. 
His  aim  is  practical  ;  he  does  not  take  flight  to  the  regions  of 
Platonic  theory,  but  he  lays  due  stress  on  many  important  truths: 
on  the  influence  of  habit.  8,  the  care  needed  in  choosing  companions 
and  7rat6aywyo£3,  on  the  true  end  of  education  4,  the  effect  of  praise 
and  blame  in  discipline  5,  the  duty  of  parents  to  their  children6, 
on  the  caution  needed  in  dealing  with  young  men  at  the  critical 
period  of  life7,  on  the  training  of  the  memory  8,  and  the  possibility 
of  overdoing  gymnastic  exercises9.  In  all  this  Plutarch  shows 
great  insight  into  the  practical  principles  and  difficulties  of  edu- 
cation ;  but  for  some  more  ideal  creation  for  the  education  of  the 
State  which,  if  not  feasible  here  on  earth,  has  nevertheless  its 


Me.  &(KTy  (ch.  vii.),  which  is  independent  of  fortune,    vfeffwf  «6 
ApfTT)»  (Stilpo), 

*  Ibid  ch.  xi. 

*  Ibid.   xii.      Parents    should    be    avroirvai    Kai    atfofcoot    nu&tiatonr,   as   far  as 
possible.  7  Ibid.  xiv. 

8  Ch.  xii.  fu>finr)  iratbfias  ra/ucfov. 

9  Ch.  x.  fnrvoi  KOU  teoirol 


Education  in  Greece.  23 

laid  up  in  heaven,  we  must  turn   to  the  pages  of  the 
Republic. 

There  we  find  two  schemes  of  education,  a  lower  and  a  higher,  one 
ordinary,  the  other  philosophic.  The  former  is  a  development  of 
the  common  Greek  education  in  yufxyaart^  and  /xovo-t/cr/1:  the  latter 
is  Plato's  own  creation,  depending  on  and  interwoven  with  his 
own  philosophic  ideas.  We  may  first  notice  that  Plato  insists, 
not  in  one  place  but  in  fifty  places,  on  the  vast  importance  of  edu- 
cation2, especially  in  the  young3,  and  its  undue  neglect  at  Athens4, 
where  people  rush  off  to  a  <7o$«mjs  to  get  themselves  or  their  sons 
educated,  not  knowing  what  manner  of  man  he  maybe;  and 
neither  the  sophist  nor  the  pupil  knows  which  of  his  educational 
wares  is  good,  and  which  is  bad.  For  this  there  is  one  remedy  — 
education  must  be  made  a  state  question  ;  the  educators  must  be 
duly  qualified  and  selected,  the  studies  prescribed,  the  children 
regarded  as  belonging  to  the  State  rather  than  to  their  parents  5. 
Education  in  Plato's  view  should  begin,  so  to  speak,  before  birth  ; 
the  guardian  must  not  only  train  up  the  children  that  are  born,  he 
must  regulate  marriage  with  a  view  to  the  production  of  the  best 
possible  offspring6,  and  deformed  or  unhealthy  children  must  be 
destroyed.  In  the  latter  recommendation  Plato  did  not  go  beyond 
the  practice  of  Greek  states,  but  the  regulation  of  marriages  and 
community  of  children,  with  the  vbaprjs  </>tAfa  resulting  from  uni- 
versal relationship,  was  alien  to  a  country  where  the  bonds  of  family 
had  been  strongly  cemented  by  religious  sentiment  and  obser- 
vance7. Yet,  though  we  see  that  Plato  was  here  misled  by  the 
analogy  of  animals,  from  which  he  also  starts  in  dealing  with 
women  8,  we  feel  that  he  has  grasped  a  truth  which  is  not  always 
realised  in  modern  times,  though  now  it  is  again  receiving  em- 
phasis from  the  doctrine  of  heredity  —  the  truth  that  it  is  a  crime 
willingly  by  reckless  marriages  to  perpetuate  misery,  and  disease, 
and  vice. 

In  pursuance  of  the  plan  of  community  there  must  be  public 
nurses  9  and  a  public  creche.  Early  nurture  is  to  last  to  the  age  of 
six  or  thereabouts,  and  this  time  is  one  of  infinite  importance, 
trivial  as  it  seems  in  detail  lo.  It  was  in  the  nursery,  according  to 
Plato,  that  tVie  minds  of  Greek  children  were  corrupted  by  the 
tales  told  them  by  their  nurses,  and  by  the  stories  out  of  Homer 
and  the  old  poets  about  Gods  and  heroes,  about  death  and  the 

1  Rep.  376  TIJ  ov?  j)  7Tcu3f/a  ;  ^  %a\eir6v  cvptiv  /3«\Tta>  HJs  wrrd  row  roMov 


8  Ibid.  519.  It  may  change  the  d(iv6rtj$  of  the  Gpipv  if/vxa.fnov  into  <f>povrj<ris,  Laws 
766,  On  it  depends  whether  a  man  is  dfpuuTaTov  or  Bfiorarov.  Cf.  Tim.  87,  Alcib. 
I.  123,  Euthyd.  306,  etc. 

8  Rep,  377  n&\iaTa  yctp  81)  rorf  w\aTr«TCU  ital  evSvtrcu  o  rt/»rdy  fo  dv  m  0ovAijT&i 
*var)fjrijva.oQai.  Cf.  Laws  804,  808. 

*  Protag.  313  4  Laws  804.  •  Rep.  456-462. 

7  Cp.  the  belief  in  inherited  family  onrses,  and  the  horror  at  the  dying  out  of  a 
family,  due  to  the  warship  of  ancestors  by  their  real  or  supposed  descendants. 

8  Rep.  451.  9  Ibid.  461-2. 

10  Laws  i.  643.  Right  training  in  the  nursery  is  the  most  important  part  of  education. 


24         Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 


world  beyond.  All  this  must  be  changed  :  (i^arar^r^ov  rots 
•Troiotff1.  The  nursery  tales  of  the  future  must  instil  courage  and 
self-control  ;  they  must  speak  no  falsehood  about  the  nature  of  God, 
and  the  criterion  of  truth  will  not  be  historical  accuracy,  but  con- 
sistency or  inconsistency  with  the  Divine  attributes  of  truthfulness 
and  perfection2.  The  picture  of  the  future  life  must  be  repainted, 
or  how  can  they  help  fearing  death  ?  the  ouia  o>iep5aAe'  evpuwa  — 
the  fcouKirrol  icai  orvy*?  KCU  e/'epoi  KOI  <&Al/3euT«¥  must  disappear3, 
We  cannot  allow  Homer  to  represent  Priam  and  Achilles  as  giving 
way  to  excessive  grief4. 

During  this  period  (if  we  may  read  some  of  the  instructions 
given  in  the  Laws  into  the  system  of  the  Republic)  exercise  should 
not  be  neglected;  at  first  children  should  be  carried  about  by 
their  nurses5  ;  then  from  three  to  six  there  should  be  sports  held  in 
common  for  both  sexes  6. 

From  the  age  of  six  or  seven  to  that  of  ten  gymnastics  must  be 
practised.  But  it  is  a  mistake  to  think  that  gymnastic  is  only 
for  the  body;  it  is  for  the  soul  as  well1.  Those  who  do  not  go 
beyond  gymnastic  become  rough  and  harsh,  those  who  neglect  it 
become  effeminate  ;  gymnastic  is  wanted  to  develope  properly  the 
spirited  part  of  the  soul  (ro  Ovpoi&ts).  Plato  does  not  lay  down 
minute  regulations  about  gymnastic,  for  'the  soul  can  look  after  the 
body  V  The  regimen  of  the  professional  athlete  must  be  avoided 
as  tending  too  much  to  sleep  and  idleness,  but  luxury  and  excessive 
indulgence  of  any  kind  must  be  avoided  too  ;  in  this  way  •'  invali- 
dism'  (vn(rorpo<t>ia)  and  the  medical  profession  will  be  got  rid  of. 
The  care  of  the  body  can  easily  be  exaggerated,  and  a  headache  is 
often  made  an  excuse  for  shelving  a  lesson  in  philosophy9.  Gym- 
nastic exercises  must  be  supplemented  by  dancing,  hunting,  and 
contests  10,  regulated  on  the  same  principles  and  with  the  same 
view,  and,  if  possible,  the  young  should  witness  a  military  engage- 
ment, and  receive  their  '  baptism  of  blood  *  at  an  early  age11. 

After  this  training  has  been  undergone  for  two  or  three  years  l2, 
there  will  begin  a  course  of  study  in  reading  and  writing,  poetry 
and  music,  lasting  about  six  years.  All  the  regulations  about 
nursery  tales  apply  equally  to  the  poetry  which  is  to  be  studied 
later  ;  with  all  possible  reverence  for  Homer  we  cannot  allow  his 
poems  in  the  State  which  we'  are  founding.  Epic  poetry,  however, 
consists  only  partially  in  imitation  ;  tragedy  and  comedy  are  ex- 
clusively imitative,  and  imitation  has  a  subtle  influence  on  char- 
acter  la.  No  youth  must  be  allowed  to  imitate  a  woman,  or  a  man 

1  Rep.  377  B  6  -yap  Vfot  ov\  ofuj  T«  Kpivftv  o  ri  vvovoia  KOI  o  n  /«y. 

8  Hence  the  three  vopoi  vaiScias,  Rep.  397-383.  (a)  God  is  the  author  of  good 
only,  (.ft}  The  Gods,  being  perfect,  never  change  their  forms.  (7)  Being  true,  they  do 
not  deceive  us. 

8  Rep.  386-7.  *  Ibid.  388.  8  Laws  790  •  Ibid.  793. 

7  Rep.  410  C.  •  Ibid.  404.  Ibid  407. 

10  Rep.  412  B  xopeiat,  Oypat,  levtnjytaiai,  yvfumcol  dyarvts  u  Ibid.  467 

"  Apparently  gymnastic  training  is  not  to  cease  at  ten,  but  to  continue  contempo 
raucously  with  other  studies. 

"  Rep.  395  D  ai  (uprjoeit  ds  (Oij  rt  teal  <pv<riv  «a0(<rrayrcu. 


Education  in  Greece.  25 

in  anger  or  trouble,  or  a  slave ;  tragedy  must  be  placed  under  the 
strictest  surveillance.  So  much  for  style  (Ac£is)  ;  rhythms  and  har- 
monies, or  modes,  must  also  be  suited  to  a  state  in  which  a  man 
acts  one  part,  not  many L,  and  the-y  must  be  consistent  with  the 
subject  matter.  Only  two  modes  will  be  allowed  to  remain,  the 
Dorian  and  the  Phrygian. 

Simplicity  is  to  be  the  aim  of  this  side  of  education ;  on  it 
depend  grace,  and  harmony,  and  good  rhythm  2.  The  education  is 
not  complete  till  the  pupil  can  recognise,  wherever  they  may  meet 
him,  the  forms  of  the  great  virtues :  of  self-control,  and  courage, 
and  generosity  3.  The  proper  balance  of  the  soul  will  have  been 
attained  :  the  appetite  will  be  under  the  control  of  reason,  and  the 
spirit  will  be  enlisted  on  the  side  of  the  higher  faculty.  The  object 
of  this  education  is  plainly  a  training  of  character ;  little  is  heard 
of  the  development  of  the  intellect  in  the  early  years  of  life. 

This  eciucation  is  not  to  be  confined  to  one  sex.  The  analogy 
of  dogs  suggests  to  us  the  fact  that  women  have  the  same  uses 
as  man,  and  must  therefore  share  the  same  education 4.  This 
principle  must  be  applied  even  to  gymnastics;  we  must  not  shrink 
from  seeing  women  in  the  gymnasia — *  honi  soit  qui  mal  y  pense.' 
The  difference  between  men  and  women  is  one  not  of  kind  but  of 
degree ;  whateve*-  a  man  can  do  a  woman  can  do,  though  less 
effectively  5. 

If  in  his  primary  education  Plato  emphasizes  the  training  of 
character,  his  scheme  of  philosophic  study  is  not  only  intellectual, 
but  of  the  most  abstract  kind.  When  the  conclusion  has  been 
arrived  at  that  philosophers  must  be  kings  in  the  ideal  state,  the 
question  arises,  Who  is  the  philosopher,  and  what  training  must 
the  philosophic  nature  undergo  ?  The  answer  given  by  the  Platonic 
philosopher  is  that  the  philosopher  is  a  lover  of  knowledge,  es- 
pecially of  true  existence  (ro  ov),  a  man  who  can  recognise  the  idea 
in  its  manifestations,  who  is  unsatisfied  with  the  particulars  and 
seeks  for  unity  in  the  world  of  realities ;  especially  does  he  yearn 
for  the  idea  roO  aya&w,  which  is  to  the  world  of  knowledge  what 
the  sun  is  to  the  physical  world.  Such  a  character  is  both  easily 
corrupted  and  hard  to  produce,  and  can  only  be  formed  by  a  course 
of  study  which  draws  the  soul  up  to  the  world  of  reality  6.  Music 
and  gymnastic  will  no  longer  avail ;  they  are  of  the  earth,  earthy. 

The  simplest  study  which  stimulates  reason  (T&V  Trpoy  v6i\<nv 
ayoVow)  is  the  science  of  number ;  then  follows  geometry.  Plain 
geometry  is  in  turn  followed  by  geometry  of  three  dimensions,  as- 
tronomy, and  harmonics.  These  are  the  Tr/oooi'/uia,  the  preliminary 

1  Rep.  397  E  !ir«tS^  tKacrros  %v  irparrti — ov  StwAovs  ot'83  iroXXairXoOy. 

3  Ibid.  400  D  tfaoyia  ical  (vaxm*0™*1)  Ka*  tvap^ooria  *o«  «fy>t>0/u'a. 

3  Ibid.  402  C  ovrvs  oi>6l  HOVGIKOI  iffoptOa  vplv  &»  ra  TTJV  aaxppoavvrjs  efih)  Kal  ai'Sprias 
Kal  (\fv6fpi6rrjros  *ai  peya \onpfir das  Kal  ooa  rovrcav  u5«A<^ct  irayraxov  vtpufi*p6ptva 
yvupifatuv.  *  Rep.  451, 

5  Ibid.  456  D  -iravrojv  ptrs\tt  fvvlj  kirirrj^tVftArojv  Kara  fyvatv,  vdvruv 
vaai  fo  acrdtvtanpov  jw^. 

*  Ibid.  521  D  <5.\*<i  r^t  \^v\^s  drro  rov  fiyvonivov  i-irl  TO  fc 


26        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

training  ;  these  studies  must  not  be  taken  up,  as  they  usually  are, 
in  an  utilitarian  spirit,  or  superficially  and  empirically  ;  our  labour 
will  be  spent  in  vain  if  we  learn  arithmetic  in  the  spirit  of  a  shop- 
keeper (/caTiTjAiictos),  or  think  that  we  are  astronomers  when  we  gaze 
at  the  stars1,  or  if  we  'use  our  ears  instead  of  our  reason'  in 
studying  harmonics2.  When  these  sciences  have  been  mastered 
we  may  proceed  to  the  crowning  science  of  dialectic,  which 
Plato  describes,  with  a  wealth  of  metaphor,  as  a  release  from  bon- 
dage, a  turning  away  from  shadows  —  a  study  without  which  a  man 
is  still  in  a  dream  3.  Dialectic  goes  to  the  first  principle  of  things, 
doing  away  with  all  hypotheses  ;  and  the  dialectician,  and  he  alone, 
can  give  an  account  of  the  essence  of  every  kind  of  being  *. 

Care  must  be  taken  in  selecting  those  who  are  to  receive  this 
education  ;  they  must  be  young  when  they  begin  the  course,  and 
sound  in  body  and  mind  5,  freedom  must  be  allowed  in  education, 
for  no  study  will  bear  fruit  if  it  is  pursued  against  the  grain  6. 
Nor  is  the  study  of  dialectic  without  its  dangers  —  young  men  just 
fresh  from  their  first  lesson  in  it  behave  like  puppies  and  show 
their  new  teeth  by  biting  each  other  7.  The  complete  course  of 
education  will  then  be  this  .  vpoiiaifata  till  .seventeen,  then  three 
years  of  gymnastic  ;  following  this  comes  ten  years'  study  of  the 
sciences,  in  order  that  their  correlation  may  be  grasped  8.  Those 
who  succeed  in  this  are  to  study  dialectic  for  five  years,  and  then 
must  join  in  the  practical  work  of  life  for  fifteen  years  ;  after  the 
age  of  fifty  they  may  resume  their  contemplations,  striving  to  pene- 
trate still  further  into  that  world  of  reality  where  alone  they  can 
find  light  to  guide  them  through  this  world  of  blurred  images  and 
indistinct  shadows. 

Plato's  second  scheme  is  thus  bound  up  with  his  philosophical 
views;  the  true  philosopher  is  the  man  who  excels  in  abstract 
thought  by  which  alone  the  tteat  can  be  grasped  ;  therefore  edu- 
cation must  be  abstract.  In  the  Laws  his  discussion  of  the 
subject  becomes  again  more  general  ;  it  will  suffice  to  notice 
the  features  which  he  emphasizes.  Education  must  be  public 
and  compulsory  ;  the  minister  of  education  will  be  one  of  the 
most  important  officers  of  the  state  9.  '  Special  7  education  is 
unworthy  of  the  name  ;  real  education  is  a  training  in  virtue  from 
youth  upwards10,  qualifying  a  man  to  be  a  good  ruler  and  a 
good  subject.  We  must  begin  with  quite  young  children,  and 
must  utilise  their  perceptions  of  pleasure  and  pain,  the  two 


1  Rep.  529.    The  stars  mast  only  be  used  as  ir/>o/3X^//dTtt  and  frapaSefy/iara  :  the 
real  object  of  study  is  T<>  &v  vaxof  «oi  %  ovoa  flpatvTqs. 

*  Jbid.  531  TO  &rn  rov  KW  it  poarrjcrA  pivot.    The  real  problem  is  to  discover  rafts 
£i>m[>iavut  dpiOfiol  /tal  ttWs  ou,  #cu  8ia  rl  tKiirfpot,  *  Ibid.  £33 

4  Ibid.  534  £  rov  Kvyov  cwfarov  \an0aiw  rrjs  oixrins. 

*  Ibid.  535  0tAoirom,  firjuovts  —  tipritypovts  tuti  dprt/ifA*fs-.  *  Ibid.  537. 

7  Ibid.  539  airtoi  d^KijAovs  i\eyxovffl  X^povrfs  axrvtp  OKV\aicta  •*$  ?A/my  rf  */ai 
a  ITU  parr  (tv  ry  \6ytp  rovs  vkfaiov  aei. 

*  .Ibid.  537  C  6  vV  ffvvoirnic^s  £*aA€*ri*6s,  6  6*  0j)  oi>.  8  Laws  766. 
w  Ibid,  645. 


Education  in  Greece.  27 

*  counsellors '  of  man ;  pleasure  must  be  associated  with  virtue 
and  pain  with  vice1.  Music  and  dancing  are  of  great  import- 
ance, but  nowhere  except  in  Sparta  and  Crete  is  proper  super- 
vision exercised  over  them2,  or  over  poetry3.  Innovation  must 
not  be  allowed  in  music  and  dancing,  or  in  sports ;  want  of 
permanence  in  sports  will  lead  to  want  of  permanence  in  legis- 
lation 4 ;  a  reverence  for  antiquity  must  be  implanted ;  we  must 
fix  the  types  of  songs  and  dances  by  consecrating  them,  as  the 
Egyptians  do.  Gymnastic  should  include  dancing  and  wrestling, 
which  conduce  to  grace  and  health,  and  should  be  shared,  at 
least  partially,  by  women  6,  Horsemanship  and  military  exer- 
cises should  not  be  neglected  ;  of  hunting,  some  kinds  are  good, 
but  others  should  be  avoided.  Every  free  man  ought  to  rise 
early,  before  his  slaves 6,  and  have  his  day  mapped  out ;  boys 
should  go  to  school  at  daybreak,  and  should  be  kept  to  work 
by  strict  discipline,  for  they  are  the  most  unruly  kind  of  animal, 
possessing  reason,  but  ill  regulated.  Everyone  should  read  and 
write,  and  learn  by  heart  selected  poems  (or,  as  an  alternative, 
some  discourse  like  the  '  Laws ') ;  they  should  practise  the  lyre 
for  some  years,  and  ought  to  know  something  of  arithmetic, 
geometry,  and  astronomy,  studies  usually  neglected  in  Greece, 
but  commonly  pursued  in  Egypt 7.  There  is  an  objection  some- 
times raised  to  astronomy,  that  it  is  impious  to  enquire  into 
the  causes  of  things ;  according  to  the  truer  view  the  exact  reverse 
is  the  case  8. 

In  comparing  the  Plato  of  the  Laws  with  the  Plato  of  the 
Republic,  we  find  that  in  many  of  the  main  points  they  agree , 
in  both  we  get  state  supervision  and  compulsion  by  the  state, 
a  censorship  of  poetry,  and  physical  education  of  women.  The 
tone  of  the  Laws  is,  however,  more  religious  in  dealing  with 
education,  as  on  other  points ;  greater  stress  is  laid  on  training 
during  infancy,  and  nothing  is  said  of  dialectic  or  after-edu- 
cation, whereas  in  the  Republic  Plato  complains  that  only  a 
few  men  ever  continue  their  education  at  all,  and  they  do  it 
in  the  intervals  left  by  money-making  and  the  care  of  a  family ; 
and  at  last  the  lamp  of  their  knowledge  goes  out,  and,  unlike 
the  sun  of  Heraclitus,  is  never  rekindled  '. 

Plato's  education,  like  his  state,  is  partly  Hellenic,  partly 
ideal le,  suggested  in  some  points  by  Sparta,  in  others  deduced 
from  his  own  philosophical  tenets.  If  we  wonder  at  the  abstract 
studies  of  his  higher  education,  and  contrast  them  with  the 
importance  he  previously  assigned  to  training  of  character,  we 
must  remember  that  *  evil  arises  chiefly  from  ignorance,*  and  so 
this  intellectual  training  is  a  moral  training  also.  Whilst  we 
can  see  that  he  does  not  realise  so  deeply  or  enumerate  so 

1  Law*  653.  «  Ibid.  655.  s  Ibid.  801.  •  Ibid.  797, 

5  Ibid.  794-5,  804.  •  Ibid.  807.  7  Ibid.  819.  *  Ibid.  8ar. 

9  Rep.  498  A  edcWwrcu  iroAv  paAAo?  rod  'HfaffAurclov  #\iov  oaov  atfrs  aim  t£an 

'  lara*. 


28        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Ediication. 

clearly  as  Aristotle  the  influence  of  habit,  and  aims  at  too  great 
uniformity  of  system,  he  has  grasped  other  truths.  Gymnastic  is 
not  for  the  body  only,  but  for  the  mind  ;  education  is  not  only 
for  youth,  but  for  age  ;  knowledge  must  be  elicted  from  within, 
not  thrust  in  from  without.  Even  if  we  were  to  judge  his  theories 
to  be  destitute  of  constructive  value,  his  earnest  eloquence  would 
still  remain  to  bear  witness  against  all  that  is  slothful  or  haphazard 
in  education. 

Aristotle's   discussion  of  education    in    the    Politics  is  unfor- 
tunately only  a  fragment,  but  it  is  sufficient  to  give  us  an  outline 
of  his  views.     His  aim  is  a  practical  one  (ov  -yv&ais  dAXa  7rpa£u,  as 
in  the  Ethics),  and  his  system  is  not  bound  up  so  closely  wr  h  his 
philosophy.     Education,  he  begins  by  saying,  is  a  state  question  ; 
each  polity  involves  a  corresponding  tone  or  character  (rjtios)  in 
its  citizens,  and  to  the  development  of  this  jjtfos  education  must 
be    directed  ;    therefore    the    education    must  be  relative  to  the 
polity1.     A  man,  too,  does  not  belong  entirely  to  himself;  he  is 
a  part  of  the  state,  and  should  be  made  to  realise  it  2,     Thirdly, 
without  state  regulation  we  get  negligence  such  as  prevails  all 
through  Greece,  except    in   Sparta3.     Every  man    educates    his 
children   as    seems   best   iii   his    own  eyes.     Though  based   on 
general  principles,  instruction  need   not   necessarily  be  uniform 
in  all  its  details,  and  methods  ;  indeed  it  is  evident  that  different 
individuals    require    varying   treatment4,  for   no  art   admits  of 
perfectly  rigid   rules.      Aristotle    now  asks   what  is  the  aim  of 
ordinary  Greek  education  :  that  education  consists  of  ypo/mjmara, 
yvfwaoTiKrj,  fxoucriKi},  and  y/ocu/u*??.     Of  these  the  first  and  last  are 
taught   for  utility,  the  second  aims  at  producing  courage.     The 
question  of  the  aim  of  music   is    more  obscure  ;  possibly  most 
people   would    say  that  pleasure  was  its  object  ;  this  is  not  so  : 
in  reality  it  is  for  the  rational  enjoyment  of  leisure  (77  «V  o-xoAji 
biayvyri).     Whilst   we   must   not   omit  to  teach  certain  subjects 
which   are    useful    or   rather   necessary,  our   ideal  of  education 
must  not  be  mere  utility;  such  a  training  would  cramp  the  mind, 
and  unfit  men  for  virtue.     A  certain  order  should  be  observed 
in  education;  habits    can  be  formed  before  the  reason  is  ready 
for  much  exercise,  and  the  training  of  the  body  should  precede 
that  of  the  soul5.     Gymnastics  are  frequently   carried   too   far, 
injuring  the  body  and  brutalising  the  mind  ;  just  as  the  Spartan 
training  tends  to  make  men  brutal  and  not  courageous.     Up  to 
puberty  only  light  exercises  should  be  allowed  ;  ordinarily  they  are 
too  violent,  and  hence  few  Olympic  victors  are  successful  both  as 


1  Pol.  v.  (viii.)  I  TO  %0os  TJ}V  woA<TCta«  l*d<w;s  <(>v\&TTfiv  (t 

xa$t<TTr)(Tiv  ff  &pxns- 

9  Ibid,  ftoptov  (Kaaros  r^y  ir6\(ojs  —  5«f  fa  ran  xoivSiv  notv^iv  iroifiaOw  Kot 
3  Eth.  x.  10  13  tv  HOVTI  iprutv  Aaxt&u/zowau'  woA<«  iKcunjv  voiovvrat  fwiti 
*  Ibid.  15  tri  tiuuptpovaiv  at  naB'  \itaaroy  trcuSftai  TWV  xoivStv  wtrn(p  IwJ  larpi- 

trjs. 

6  Pol.  v.  (mi.)  3.  13  wptnpov  roTf  I0«<rtv  fl  r£  K&w  xai  wtpi  rd  <T£>IM  vportpov  j  n)» 

Stavoiav. 


Education  at  Rome.  29 

boys  and  as  men.  There  should  be  an  interval  of  three  years  for 
study,  and  then  a  course  of  heavier  exercises;  but  regular  training 
in  both  should  not  go  on  at  the  same  time 1. 

Music  has  several  effects :  it  is  an  amusement,  and  men  are  apt 
to  make  their  amusement  into  an  end  in  itself2 ,  it  is  a  cultured 
employment  of  leisure,  and  it  has  a  profound  moral  influence, 
entering  into  and  altering  the  whole  character3  ;  as  we  sympathise 
with  the  different  states  of  mind  which  it  can  represent.  Of  the 
different  modes  the  Lydian  is  melancholy,  the  Dorian  sedate,  the 
Phrygian  enthusiastic.  Socrates  was  wrong  in  leaving  the 
Phrygian  in  his  ideal  state.  Music  must  be  learnt  by  actual 
practice,  but  neither  the  pieces  learnt  nor  the  instruments  should 
be  professional  (T€\VIKOS). 

Of  higher  education  Aristotle  does  not  treat  in  the  Politics. 
In  his  philosophy  he  never  quite  reconciles  the  conflicting  claims 
of  the  life  of  contemplation  and  the  life  of  active  citizenship,  nor 
does  he  quite  decide  how  far  education  is  to  lead  up  to  one  or  to 
both.  Yet  in  a  way  they  are  reconciled  ;  the  true  politician  is  the 
philosophic  politician,  and  he  will  need  both  depth  of  moral 
nature  and  a  complete  training  in  dialectic.  Training  in  dialectic 
is  the  only  kind  of  special  education  which  is  at  the  same  time  a 
4  liberal '  education,  the  individual  cultivated  through  dialectic  as 
an  end  to  himself  alone  becomes  in  this  way  the  most  effective  in- 
strument towards  some  ulterior  end  l. 


III.    EDUCATION  AT  ROME. 
§  i.  EDUCATION  BEFORE  THE  PUNIC  WARS. 

Hoc  patrium  est  potius  consnefacere  (ilium 
Sua  sponte  recte  facere  quarn  alieno  metu 
Ut  praesens  abseusque  idem  sit.'— -TER.  Adelph.  t,  t.  47. 

'  Non  his  iuventus  orra  parentibus 
Infecit  aequor  sanguine  Punico.' — HOR.  Carm.  lii.  6.  33. 

We  have  listened  to  Aristophanes  lamenting  the  growing  cor- 
ruption of  education  and  character  in  his  own  day ;  when  we 
turn  to  Rome  we  hear  complaints  that  are  both  louder  and 
better  founded.  For  the  degeneracy  of  Greek  education,  if  de- 
generacy there  was,  did  not  come  from  any  foreign  source;  it 
was  of  native  growth  and  origin ;  the  change  at  Rome  was 

1  Pol.  v.  (viii.)  4  a/id  -ya/)  ry  rt  Stavoiq.  teal  rip  auftart  Smirovfiy  ov  faT. 

3  Ibid,  5  avn@(fiT)K(  8*  rots  avOpunois  iroitiaOai  ras  naiSias  r^Xos. 

8  Ibid.  5.  §  16  wottii  ni'ft  ra  ijOr)  yiyvofitOa  Si'  aur^?.  The  same  is  the  case  in  a  less 
degree,  he  remarks,  with  sculpture. 

4  Sir  W.  Hamilton.     'A   liberal  education  is  that   in   which   the  individual  is 
cultivated,  not  as  an  instrument  towards  some  ulterior  end,  but  as  an  end  to  himself 
alone.' 


3O        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

worked  by  external  influences,  by  Eastern  luxury  and  by  Greek 
refinement.  '  Graecia  capta  ferum  victorem  cepit  et  artes  in- 
tulit  agresti  Latio ;'  these  words  sum  up  the  history  of  Roman 
education  as  well  as  of  Roman  literature.  Every  age  gives 
expression  to  the  feeling  that  'it  is  no  better  than  its  fathers,' 
and  were  there  no  other  proof  than  Horace's  repeated  assertions 1 
of  the  depravity  of  his  time  we  might  ascribe  the  supposed 
falling  off  to  his  fancy  or  to  his  rhetoric.  Unhappily  by  the 
evidence  of  crimes  and  laws2,  by  the  pages  of  history  as  well 
as  by  the  voice  of  rhetoric,  we  are  assured  of  the  reality  of  this 
decay.  Of  the  life  of  later  times  we  have  ample  descriptions  in 
the  pages  of  Cicero  and  Horace,  of  Juvenal  and  Martial ;  of  the 
older  days  the  general  features  indeed  are  clear,  but  the  details 
have  to  be  gathered  up  and  pieced  together  from  fragments  of  con- 
temporary writers,  or  discovered  amidst  an  almost  continuous 
record  of  triumphs  and  prodigies,  of  foreign  wars  and  internal 
seditions.  Yet,  if  we  can  draw  some  picture  of  the  old  life,  we 
shall  not  have  to  go  much  further  for  an  account  of  the  old  edu- 
cation ;  for  it  consisted  not  in  systematic  instruction  or  literary 
culture,  but  in  the  discipline  of  life, 

The  old  education  centred  in  the  family  ;  and  at  Rome  the 
family  bond  was  a  stronger  one  than  in  Greece.  Marriage  was 
not  yet  looked  upon  as  the  necessary  evil  which  Metellus  Numi- 
dicus  s  pronounced  it  to  be ;  the  penalties  for  adultery  were  severe 
and  divorce  was  unknown4.  The  position  of  the  mother  was 
more  dignified  and  less  secluded  than  in  Greece,  and  she  had 
more  influence  in  the  bringing  up  of  her  children  6.  The  power 
of  the  paterfamilias  over  his  family  was  absolute  8  in  early  times, 
though  subsequently  limited  by  law  7.  In  Rome,  as  in  Greece, 
abortion  and  exposure  of  children  were  practised,  and  there  was 
the  same  custom  of  the  father  '  taking  up '  ('suscipere,'  'tollere ')  his 
child  as  a  formal  recognition ;  in  later  times  this  was  supplemented 
by  a  'professlo/  or  public  announcement  in  the  journals  and 
registers 8.  At  the  nundinae  the  name  was  given,  and  presents 
('crepundia')9  were  made  by  relatives;  then  too  the  bulla  or  amulet 
of  gold  was  hung  round  the  neck,  to  be  worn  till  the  toga  prae- 
texta  was  laid  aside  lo.  Presiding  over  the  Nundinae  there  was  a 

1  Hor.  Od.  iii.  6  '  Aetas  parentura  peior  avis  tulit  1  nos  nequiores  mox  daturos  |  pro- 
geniem  vitiosiorem.' 

*  Tacitus'  statement  (Ann.  lii.)  ' corniptissima  repnblica  plurimae  leges'  is  at  any 
rat*  true  of  Rome. 

8  Censor  103  B.C.  4  Till  the  time  of  Sp.  Carvilius,  circa  234  B.C. 

*  Tac.  Dial,  de  Or.  28  '  Filing  in  gremio  ac  sinu  matris  educabatur,  cuius  praecipna 
lans  erst  tueri  domain  et  inservire  liberis  ...  at  mine  natus  infans  delegatur  Grae- 
culae  ancillae.' 

'  Gaius,  Inst.  i.  131,  2,  Dionys.  Halicam.  Rom.  Antiq.  ii.  26,  27. 

7  Justinian,  Digest.  28.  2.  n,  Codex.ix.  15. 

8  Juv.  ix.  84  '  ToUis  enim  et  libris  actoram  spargere  gaudes  |  argumenta  viri.'     Cf. 
u.  136,  Digest,  xxii.  3.  29,  9  Plaut.  Epid.  v.  i.  33. 

10  Prop.  iv.  i.  131  'Mox  ubi  bnlla  rodi  demissa  est  aurea  collo  |  matris  et  ante 
decs  libera  sampta  toga.'  Juvenal's  phrase  ('aurum  Etruscum')  points  to  its  supposed 
origin.  Macrobius  has  a  long  discussion  about  it,  Saturn,  i.  6. 


Education  at  Rome.  31 

special  deity  (Nundina),  and  it  is  characteristic  of  the  Roman 
religion  that  there  were  several  shadowy  and  abstract  divinities 
corresponding  to  the  first  wants  and  e\rents  of  childhood1. 
Nursing  was  in  early  times  done  by  the  mother,  but  afterwards 
nurses 8  became  common,  especially  in  the  higher  classes,  where  all 
family  cares  and  responsibilities  were  unfashionable  3.  The  first 
years  of  life  would  be  spent  under  the  mother's  care  ;  a  Roman 
matron  of  the  old  type  would  look  after  the  health  and  morals  of 
her  children,  and  would  train  them  to  speak  correctly4;  the  rev- 
erence due  to  children,  which  Juvenal  pleaded  for  in  vain,  was 
duly  maintained  in  the  days  of  Cato6.  As  the  boy  grew  he 
became  his  father's  companion,  in  his  business  and  his  recreation, 
in  the  forum  or  about  the  country  estate ;  we  hear  of  boys  accom- 
panying their  fathers  to  dinner  at  the  houses  of  friends 6.  Some- 
times they  seem  to  have  waited  at  private  banquets,  and  to  have 
sung  during  the  feast  lays  celebrating  the  praises  of  their  ancestors7. 
It  is  said  that  sons  of  senators  were  allowed  to  be  present  at 
the  debates  in  the  senate  8,  and  even  to  be  with  their  parents  on  a 
campaign.  In  this  way  the  young  Roman  got  an  early  insight 
into  the  affairs  in  which  he  would  one  day  have  to  take  part,  and 
could  watch  and  profit  by  the  example  of  his  elders 9.  ft  was  an 
education  in  action,  designed  to  produce  readiness  and  judgment 
in  action,  and  it  succeeded  ;  this  was  the  training  of  the  Roman 
senators  at  the  time  of  the  senate's  greatest  glory.  Towards  his 
father  the  young  Roman  was  taught  to  maintain  an  attitude  of 
respect  ('  modestia/  'pudor ') ;  the  father's  word  was  to  be  law,  both  in 
small  things  and  in  great.  Reverence  and  obedience  were  also 
demanded  from  him  to  the  laws  of  the  state,  and  to  the  gods  of 
state ;  those  great  powers  whom  the  city  worshipped  with  ever  in- 
creasing ceremonial,  deities  whom  he  might  fear,  if  he  could  not 
love ;  nor  had  the  religions  of  the  East  as  yet  begun  to  corrupt 
morality  by  degrading  worships  and  obscene  practices  10.  As  for 
actual  intellectual  training  by  book  learning  there  was  little  or 
none ;  Rome  had  no  literature  of  her  own,  and  of  Greek  literature 
she  was  still  ignorant.  Elementary  schools  existed  apparently 

1  Such  as  Leuana,  Edusa  ct  Fotina,  Cumina,  Vagitanus  (penes  quern  vocis  mmaV 

9  The  nurse  was  sometimes  called  'mater/    Plaut.  Men.  Prof.  19  'mater  quae 
mammam  dabat.' 

*  Tac.  Dial.  28,  Aul.  Cell.  xii.  a. 

4  Cic.  Brut.  74,  De  Orat.  iii.  la.  s  Plut.  Cato  Mai.  ch.  20. 

8  Ibid.  Quaest.  Rom.  33  &£  «'  rd  imXt&v  ofa  Mtlmrow  f£<»  x*V>«*  «ur  vtuv ; 
7  Varro  apud  Nonius,  8.  v.  puerae  and  assa  voce. 

*  Macrobius  (Sat.  i.  6),  gives  an  amusing  anecdote  of  the  young  Papirius  who  baffled 
his  mother's  curiosity  as  to  the  proceedings  in  the  Senate :  on  the  other  hand  Polybius 
scornfully  denies  the  custom  (Hist.  iii.  20,  3),  and  his  opinion  is,  of  course,  more  to  be 
relied  on. 

*  Pliny,  Ep.  8.  14,  4  'Erat  autera  antiquitus  usitatum  ut  a  maioribus  non  aurihus 
modo  verum  etiam  oculis  disceremus  quae  facienda  max  ipsi  .  .  .  haberemus:  adole- 
scentuli  statim  castrensibns  stipendiaries  imbueantur :    inde  honores  petituri  curiae 
assistebant  foribus :  et  consilii  publici  spectatores  antequam  consortes  erant.' 

10  The  worship  of  Cybele  was  introduced  in  204,  that  of  Bacchus  had  taken  firm 
root  by  186  B.C.,  the  date  of  the  S.  C.  de  Bacchanalibus. 


32        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

from  early  times  both  at  Rome  *  and  elsewhere2,  but  the  instruc- 
tion given  in  them  must  have  been  nearly  confined  to  reading  and 
writing ;  possibly  the  pupils  may  have  learnt  by  heart  the  '  rude 
Saturnian  verses '  of  early  Rome,  and  the  little  more  prosaic 
Twelve  Tables,  the  *  necessarium  carmen '  of  Cicero's  education  3. 
As  for  physical  training  the  Romans  were  at  this  period  unac- 
quainted with  the  Greek  gymnasia,  and  even  when  they  became 
acquainted  v/ith  them  they  never  showed  any  readiness  to  adopt 
them4.  Their  exercises  aimed  at  hardiness  and  vigour  of  frame, 
not  at  gracefulness  of  limb,  and  no  doubt  Cato  was  not  alone  in 
actually  labouring  in  the  fields,  and  trying  to  raise  a  crop  from  the 
rocky  Sabine  hill  sides5.'  Less  utilitarian  was  the  exercise 
obtained  by  riding  and  swimming  6,  both  of  which  date  from  early 
times. 

Such  was  the  ap\aia  vatfofa  of  Rome,  the  training  which  pro- 
duced the  old  Roman  character  with  all  its  excellences  and  all 
its  defects.  It  aimed  not  at  culture  or  erudition,  but  at  steadiness 
of  character  and  readiness  in  action  ;  it  sought  to  preserve  habits 
of  obedience,  of  simplicity,  and  frugality,  to  exalt  reverence  for 
law  and  devotion  to  the  State,  whilst  making  the  family  the  unit 
of  social  life.  For  it  was  above  all  things  a  home  training,  carried 
on  by  the  parents,  and  especially  by  the  father :  '  suus  cuique  parens 
pro  magistro.'  Plautus  was  expressing  the  feeling  of  Rome  rather 
than  of  Greece,  when  he  said  7  : — 

1  At  ilia  laus  est  magno  in  genere  et  divitiis  maximis 
Liberos  hominem  educare  generi  monnmentum  et  sibi!' 

But  this  was  not  to  last ;  the  very  triumphs  which  were  secured 
by  this  training  proved  fatal  to  it,  and  the  uncultured  military 
power  sank  beneath  the  spell  of  Oriental  luxury  and  Greek  litera- 
ture and  art. 

§  2.  RISE  OJF  GREEK  INFLUENCE. 

1  Odi  homines  opera  ignava  et  philosopha  sentential — PACUVIUS. 

'  Gramniaticus  rhetor  geometres  pictor  aliptes 
Auy;nr  schoenobates  medicos  "magus :   omnia  novit 
Graeculus  esuriens.' — JUVENAL. 

The  Roman  had  not  to  cross  the  Adriatic  in  order  to  come 
into  contact  with  Greek  influence ;  Cumae,  and  Tarentum,  and 
Syracuse  brought  Greek  language  and  thought  close  to  him. 
From  early  times  there  must  have  been  commercial  intercourse 

J  Livy  iii.  44  'Virgini  venienti  in  forum  (namque  ibi  in  tabernis  literarum  ludi 
erant).'  Cf,  Dionys.  x.  28. 

8  Ibid.  v.  27—  of  Falisci— • 'plures  pneri  unius  curae  demandabantur.' 

8  Cic.  Leg.  ii.  23  '  discebamns  enim  pueri  xii  tabulas,  ut  carmen  necessarium.' 

4  Plot.   Quaest.   Rom.  30  rb  ydf  fr}paXonf>(iv  vfptwpwvro  'Pupaioi  fftyoSpci  *o2  reft 
'EAAjffft  prjbtv  ofoprcu  OVT<IJ>  atriov  SovXtias  ytyovivai  *o2  /ioAoxtas  a>s  rd  fviwdaia.  *ai 
TOS  ira\aiffrpas,  K.T.\. 

5  Cato,  ap.  Fest.  p.  281  'agro  colendo  Sabinis  silicibus  repastinandis.' 

'  Hor.  Sat.  ii.  L.  8  '  ter  uncti  |  transnanto  Tiberim  somno  quibus  est  opus  alto.' 
1  Miles  Gloriosus  iii.  i.  no. 


Education  at  Rome.  33 


between    Rome  and   Magna    Graecia,    resulting    in   the   partial 
adoption  of  Greek  words  and  Greek  myths. 

With  the  completion  of  the  conquest  of  Italy,  Tarentum  and 
the  Greek  cities  of  the  South  fell  before  Rome,  after  invoking 
Pyrrhus  in  vain  (282  B.  C.).  Sicily  became  a  province  after  the 
First  Punic  War.  It  is  not,  however,  till  the  Macedonian  wars 
that  we  find  a  Philhellenic  tendency  ;  the  '  liberation  of  Greece  ' 
by  Flamininus  in  196,  though  the  liberty  was  but  a  shadow,  yet 
shows  the  growth  of  Roman  respect  for  the  past  of  Greece.  For 
some  years  before  this  Greek  culture  had  appeared  at  Rome ; 
Spurius  Carvilius,  a  freedman,  was,  we  are  told,  the  first  to  open  a 
school  in  which  Greek  was  taught  *,  and  it  was  ominous  that  he  too 
was  the  first  Roman  who  was  divorced.  Livius  Andronicus,  who 
had  been  brought  from  Tarentum  as  a  slave,  was  a  schoolmaster, 
and  translated  the  Odyssey  chiefly  as  a  school  book.  Latin 
literature  thus  originated  in  the  school  and  under  Greek  influence. 
The  plays  of  Plautus  are  not  only  Greek  in  their  origin  and  in  the 
life  they  describe,  but  they  teem  with  Greek  words  with  which  the 
audience  was  supposed  to  be  familiar2,  and  of  the  earliest  annalists 
of  Rome,  two — Q.  Fabius  Pictor  and  C.  Acilius— wrote  in  Greek. 
We  need  not  multiply  examples ;  it  is  plain  that  it  was  Greek 
influence  which  developed  Latin  literature,  and  without  a  literature 
education  cannot  advance  beyond  the  elementary  stage.  We  may 
notice,  however,  the  attempts  to  resist  the  tide ;  we  see  them  most 
plainly  in  the  outspoken  Denunciations  of  Cato  the  Censor  3,  the 
typical  Roman.  Cato  foretold  that  corruption  would  be  the  result 
of  the  new  movement  4,  but  he  so  far  yielded  to  the  movement 
himself  as  to  read  Demosthenes  and  Thucydides,  and  we  hear  of 
his  having  a  slave  who  was  a  good  grammarian.  Nor  did  Cato 
stand  alone;  in  161  B.C.  the  majority  of  the  Senate  decreed  the 
expulsion  of  rhetoricians  and  philosophers  ?,  but  the  decree  was 
never  carried  out,  and  the  number  of  literary  slaves  and  freedmen 
increases  all  through  the  second  century  before  Christ.  The 
higher  culture  was  patronized  by  many  of  the  greatest  men  at  Rome, 
by  Aemilius  Paullus,  the  conqueror  of  Macedonia,  and  then  by  the 
Scipionic  circle.  By  the  time  of  Cicero  no  education — still  less 
the  education  of  a  future  orator — was  complete  without  the  study 
of  Greek6;  and  besides  the  actual  study  of  the  language,  the 
whole  scheme  of  instruction  was  no  longer  Roman,  but  Greek. 
Let  us  now  trace  its  outlines. 

1  This  must  be  the  meaning  of  Plutarch's  statement  (Q.  R.  59)  rrpwrov  av(a>£(  3i§«<y- 
*aA«ffw ;  elementary  schools,  as  we  have  seen,  existed  before. 

E.  g.  'machaera.'  '  trapezita/  '"  logus,'  '  lechna,'  '  schema/ 

a 34- 149  B.C. 

Pliny,  N.  H.  xxix.  7  '  Quandoquc  ista  gens  suas  literas  dabit  omnia  corrumpet. 

Suet,  de  Clar.  Rhet.  i. 

Ibid.  2  (Cicero  explains  why  he  did  not  go  to  Latin  rhetores)  «  Continebar  doctis- 
simorum  hominum  auctoritate,  qui  existimabant  Graecis  exercitationibus  ali  melius 
ingenia  posse.' 

D 


34        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

§  3.   EDUCATION  IN  THE  TIME  OF  CICERO. 
(a)  Early  years  and  Elementary  Schools. 

*  Edncit  obstetrix,  educat  nutrix,  instituit  paedagogus,  docet  magister.* 

'  Prima  cratera  litteratoris  ruditatem  eximit :  secunda  graminatici  doctrina  instrnit 
tertia  rhetoris  eloquentia  armat/ — APUL.  Flor.  20. 

The  good  influence  of  the  parents  on  the  early  life  of  the 
child  gradually  waned  as  simplicity  of  life  became  more  rare. 
Tt  is  noticeable  that  Cicero  never  alludes  to  his  mother  in  the 
whole  of  his  writings,  and  rarely  to  his  father.  Yet  there  were 
not  wanting  in  the  later  Republic  instances  of  careful  early 
training.  Horace  tells  us  frankly  of  the  debt  that  he  owed  to 
his  father1,  and  Tacitus  contrasts  the  mothers  of  those  days 
with  the  fashionable  ladies  of  his  own  time2.  But  we  hear 
more  of  boys  being  entrusted  to  the  care  of  slaves,  who  are 
variously  designated  as  'custodes,'  'comites,'  'monitores/  *pedi- 
sequi,'  and  'paedagogi.'  It  was  the  special  function  of  the 
latter  to  accompany  young  boys  to  school,  and  in  some  cases 
they  stayed  and  availed  themselves  of  the  lesson.  The  fashion 
was  a  Greek  one,  and  the  slaves  were  very  often  Greeks,  from 
whom  the  language  could  be  learnt;  often  too,  at  least  in  the 
time  of  Tacitus  and  Quintilian,  they  were  worthless,  and  exercised 
a  bad  influence  on  their  charges  3. 

The  course  of  instruction  had  by  this  time  become  more  defined 
and  systematised ;  the  « litterator/  the  '  grammaticus,'  and  the 
'  rhetor '  successively  undertook  the  training  of  the  youth  who  as- 
pired to  a  good  education.  Sometimes,  however,  when  the  parents 
were  wealthy,  all,  or  at  any  rate  the  earlier,  of  these  stages  were 
supplied  by  a  tutor,  generally  a  Greek  slave  or  freedman  *,  who 
taught  the  ordinary  subjects  oi  the  *  ludus  literarius,'  or  of  the  gram- 
marian's *  curriculum,'  as  well  as  the  Greek  language,  the  knowledge 
of  which  was  now  common,  but  not  universal6. 

Though  schools  existed  in  country  towns,  we  find  boys  being 
brought  up  from  the  country  to  Rome  for  the  sake  of  education, 
Horace's  father  was  not  satisfied  with  the  instruction  or  the  com- 
pany at  the  school  in  Venusium,  and  brought  his  son  to  Rome  6 ; 
Cicero's  father  migrated  from  Arpinum  to  the  capital  for  the  same 

1  Hor  Sat.  i  6. 81  'Ipse  mihi  custos  incorruptissimns  omnes  |  circa  doctores  aderat. 
quid  multa  ?  pudicurn  |  qui  primus  virtutis  honos  servavit  et  omni  j  non  solum  facto 
venim  opprobrio  quoque  torpi.' 

*  Dial,  dc  Or.  28  'Sic  Comellam  Gracchorum,  sic  Aureliam  Caesaris,  «ic  Iliam 
Augusti  matrem  praefuisse  edncationibus  et  produxisse  principes  liberos  accepimus.' 

*  Quint,  i.  i.  8,  Tacit.  Dial,  de  Orat.  i.  29. 

*  Pliny,  Epp.  iii.  '  Praeceptores  domi  habuit ;   iam  studia  extra  limen  proferenda.' 
Ibid.  N.  H.  35.  14  L.  Paullus  asked  the  Athenians  '  nt  quam  probatissimum  philo- 
sophum  mitterent  ad  erndiendos  liberos'    Cf.  Cicero's  Tyrannic  Ep.  ad  Q.  F.  iv. 
4-  2. 

*  The  praetors  in  the  provinces  in  Cicero's  time  had  their  interpreters. 

'  Hor.  Sat.i.  6.  72  '  Noluit  in  Flavi  ludum  me  mittere,  magni  j  quo  pueri  magnis  e 
centurionibus  orti  I  ibant  octonis  referentes  Idibus  acra.' 


Education  at  Rome.  35 


reason1.  Seven  seems  to  have  been  an  ordinary  age  for  going  to 
the  <  ludus  iiterarius,'  where  instruction  was  given  in  '  reading, 
writing,  and  arithmetic/  In  reading,  sometimes  the  names  of  the 
letters  and  their  order  were  learnt  first ;  sometimes  their  form — the 
method  preferred  by  Quintilian  2 ;  writing  was  taught  by  having 
letters  marked  out  on  wax  tablets  3  ;  arithmetic  by  counting  on  the 
fingers  *,  or  by  the  abacus ;  the  study  of  the  latter  was  not  carried 
very  far,  but  accuracy  and  quickness  in  ordinary  calculation  were 
valued  by  the  practical  or  the  commercial  parent  5.  It  was  in  the 
elementary  school  that  boys  began  to  learn  poetry  by  heart — first 
hearing  it  dictated fi,  and  the  rod  was  called  into  requisition  to 
stimulate  the  memory.  The  masters  were  known  as  *  litteratores,' 
but  were  often  far  from  being  *  literati ','  and  their  position  was 
neither  respected  nor  envied.  Orbilius,  who  probably  belonged  to 
this  class,  wrote  a  book  on  the  sorrows  of  a  schoolmaster,  entitled 
the  nep/ctA.yr/9,  and  we  maybe  sure  that  they  were  no  better  off  than 
the  rhetors  of  Juvenal 's  day.  They  seem  to  have  had  assistants  in  the 
shape  of  '  hypodidascali  V  and  'calculatores'  or  arithmetic  masters. 
We  hear  of  their  holding  oul  allurements  to  induce  their  pupils  to 
learn9,  but  fear  was  the  lever  most  commonly  in  use,  and  'clamosi* 
or  *  plagosi  are  the  epithets  most  usually  applied  to  the  teachers ; 
the  name  of  the  instrument  of  torture  was  '  ferula 10.*  The  school , 
hours  were  in  the  morning,  beginning  early  n  ;  holidays  were  usual 
at  the  Saturnalia 12,  in  December,  and  the  Quinquatria 13,  in  March. 
From  a  well-known  passage  in  Horace 14,  it  has  been  supposed  by 
Hermann  and  others  that  all  Roman  boys  had  a  { long  vacation '  of 
four  months  in  the  summer  ,  but  Horace  is  referring  to  a  school  at 
Vetiusium,  and  is  contrasting  it  in  some  respects,  and  possibly  in 
this,  with  schools  in  the  city,  Hermann's  theory,  however,  receives 
some  support  from  Martial  IL\  and  it  must  remain  uncertain  in  what 
class  of  schools  these  long  holidays  were  the  custom  The  school 

I  Cic.  de  Oral.  ii.  i.  *  Inst.  Orat.i.  i.  24-6.  3  Ibid.  i.  a8. 

*  Cic.  ad  Att.  v.  20  'Si  tuos  digitos  novi  certe  babes  subductura;'  Ovid,  Epp.  ex 
Ponto  ii.  3.  1 8  '  Suppositis  supputat  articuiis.' 

<*  Hor.  A.  P.  325  'Roman!  pueri  longis  ratiombus  assem  j  discunt  in  centum  partes 
deducere:  dicat  |  filius  Albini,'  etc.  Cf.  Quint.  Inst.  Or.  i.  10.  35. 

"  Hot.  Epp.  ii.  i.  69  'Non  equidem  insector  delendave  cannina  Livi  j  esse  reor 
memim  quae  plagosum  inihi  parvo  |  Orbilium  dictate/ 

7  Suetonius,  ( Ilium  quidem  absolute,  hunc  mediocriter  doctutn,'  de  Giamm.  §  4. 

*  Cic..ad  Fam.  ix.  18  '  Sella  tibi  erit  in  Indo  tanquam  hypodidascalo  proxima." 

9  Hor.  Sat.  i  i.  75  '  Ut  pneris  olirc  dant  cruslula  blandi  j  doctores  elements  velint 
at  discere  prima ' 

16  juv.  i.  15  •  Msxmraferu/M  subduximu* ;'  Mart.  xii.  57  'Negant  vitam  ludi  maestri 
mane,  nocte  pistores;  v.  84  { Nncibns  puei  relictU  clamoso  revocatur  a  magistro.' 
Cp.  ix.  68;  Plaut.  Bacch.  iii.  3.  a8  ('ferula* »Gk.  vaptojt,  which  a  scholiast  derives 
from  vttipovs  BTjytiv}. 

II  Mart.  xii.  57-ix.  30  '  Matutinns  magister  ;"  ix.  68, 
18  Pliny  viii.  7. . 

18  Hor.  Ep.  ii.  2.  197  '  Puer  ut  festis  qninquatribiu  oliro  exiguo  gratoque  fruaris 
tempore  raptim.' 

Hor.  Sat.  i.  6.  75  'Ibant  octonis  referentes  Idibus  aera.' 

15  Mart.  x.  62  '  Ferulaeque  tri&tes  sceptra  paedagogorurn  |  cessent  et  idus  dormiant 
in  Octobres:  |  aestate  pueri  si  valent  satis  discunt .' 


36        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 


fees  in  the  elementary  school  were  trifling  ;  on  entering  a  fee  was 
required  (Minerval) l ;  the  ordinary  fees  were  either  paid  monthly, 
as  the  passage  from  Horace  would  lead  us  to  believe,  or  once  a  year, 
as  seems  to  have  been  customary  later,  in  March  2, 

If  the  parent  could  afford  it,  the  boy,  after  going  through  the 
'ludus  literarius,'  would  begin  his  higher  education  under  a  gram- 
marian ('  grammaticus '). 

§  4.   EDUCATION  IN  THE  TIME  OF  CICERO  (continued) 
(j3.)  Grammar  and  Rhetoric. 

'Mihi  inter  virtutes  grammatici  habebitur  aliqua  nescire.' — QUINTILIAN. 

.  The  Romans  became  in  later  times  a  '  nation  of  grammarians, 
but  the  study  of  grammar  was  nevertheless  an  importation.  In 
early  days,  Suetonius  teils  us,  the  science  was  unknown  3.  and  when 
the  *  scholae  grammaticorum  '  were  first  introduced  from  Greece  4 
the  provinces  of  the  grammarian  and  the  rhetor  had  not  yet  been 
separated  6.  The  early  teachers,  like  Crates  of  Mallus,  who  was  said 
to  have  been  the  first  to  come  to  Rome  6,  gave  instruction  in  both 
grammar  and  rhetoric.  Soon,  however,  there  came  greater  special- 
isation, and  the  pupil  underwent  a  course  of  training,  first  from  the 
grammarian  and  afterwards  from  the  professor  of  rhetoric. 

It  was  the  task  of  the  grammarian  to  read  with  his  pupils  the 
works  of  poets  and  historians,  and  to  comment  on  the  substance, 
but  more  especially  on  the  form,  of  the  writings,  explaining,  emend- 
ing, and  criticising 7 ;  he  must  be  familiar  with  history  and  mytho- 
logy, as  well  as  with  the  forms  of  language,  and  the  best  models  of 

/  expression.  The  object  of  the  study  was  that  the  learner  should 
acquire  correctness  of  expression,  in  speaking,  reading  aloud,  and 
writing,  by  familiarity  with  the  best  authors  of  Greece  and  Rome, 
besides  gaining  a  store  of  knowledge  on  the  subjects  of  which  these 
authors  treated  8.  Horace  is  probably  referring  to  the  '  schola  gram- 
matica  *  when  he  tells  us  how  he  learnt  of  the  wrath  of  Achilles  in- 
juring the  Greeks  9,  and  Horace's  works  became  in  turn  a  favourite 

1  Juv.  x.  116  *  Quisquis  adhuc  nno  partam  colit  asse  Minervam'  refers  to  this 

2  Macr.  i.  12  '  Hoc  mense  mercedes  exsolvebant  magistris.' 

*  Suetonius,  de  Illustr.  Gramm.  i. '  Grammatica  Romae  ne  in  usu  quidem  o!im  nednm 
in  honore  ullo  erat . . .  antiquissimi  doctorum  . . .  poetae  et  semigraeci .  . .  nihil  amplhu 
quam  Graeca  interpretabantur  aut,  si  quid  ipsi  Latine  composuissent.  praelegebant .' 

4  Cic.  'fuse.  Disp.  ii.  10  'Eruditio  liberalis  et  disciplina  a  Graecis.' 

5  Suet.  Rhet.  iv.  '  Veleres  grammatici  et  rhetoricam  docebant.' 

6  '  Primus  igitu'r  quantum  opinamur  stadium  grammaticae  in  urbem  intulit  Crates 
Mallotes  Aristarchi  aequalis  '  (Suet.  Gramm.  2). 

7  Cic.  Orat.  i.  42.  187  'Historiae  cognitio  . .  .  verborum  interpretatio  et  pronuntiandi.' 
Varro  divides  his  task  into  four,  'lectio  narratio,  emendatio  iudicium.' 

8  Quint.  List.  Or.  i.  4  makes  two  divisions,  '  Recte  loquendi  scientia  et  poetarurn 
enarratio  .  .  .  plus  ha  bet  in  recessu  quam  fronte   promittat,  nam  et  scribendi  ratio 
coniuncta  cum  loquendo  est,  et  enarrationem  praecedit  emendata  lectio,  et  mixtwm  his 
omnibus  iudicium.* 

*  Ep.  ii.  2.  43 . '  Romae  nutriri  mihi  contigit  atque  doceri  {  iratus  Grans  quantum 
nocuisset  Achilles.' 


Education  at  Rome.  37 


text-book  for  the  young  pupil l,  though  never  so  universal  as  Homer 
and  Vergil2. 

Of  rhetorical  teachers  there  were  in  Cicero's  day  two  kinds,  the 

*  rhetores  Graeci'  and  the  'rhetores  Latini.'     We  are  told  that  the 
first  Latin  rhetor  was  L.  Plotius  Gallus,  a  freedman,  and  that  when 
Cicero  wished  to  study  under  him  his  friends  objected,  saying  that 
a  training  in  Greek  would  be  more  valuable  to  the  future  orator 3. 
The  conservatives  of  the  period  objected  less  to  declamation  in 
Greek  than  to  having  their  own  language  reduced  to  rule  and 
brought  under  the  laws  of  rhetoric,  and  the  censors  of  93  B.C., 
Crassus  and  Domitius,  issued  an  edict  closing  these  s  schools  of 
insolence  V      Suetonius  gives  us  the  words  of  this   remarkable 
edict5,  in  which  the  schools  of  the  Latin  rhetors  are  condemned  as 
a  'new  kind  of  training5.'  'opposed  to  the  customs  of  our  ancestors,* 
'  places  where  young  men  idled  away  the  whole  day/   The  rhetors 
were  in  fact  regarded  with  much  the  same  feelings  as  the  Sophists 
had  been  by  the  partisans  of  Aristophanes,  and  it  is  remarkable 
that  Crassus,  one  of  the  authors  of  this  edict,  was  among  the  fore- 
most orators  of  his  day.    Yet  the  rhetoric  of  Cicero's  time  had  not 
reached  the  pitch  of  insipidity  and  artificiality  which  was  attained 
under  the  Empire :  the  debates  of  the  senate  and  the  political 
importance  of  great  trials  made  really  effective  speaking  of  more 
value  than  florid  declamation,  and  consequently  affected  the  pro- 
cesses of  early  training tj.      Cicero  went  for  some  time   to  the 

*  Graecae  exercitationes  '  which  his  friends  prescribed  for  him,  and 
attained,  as  we  see  from  his  letters  and  philosophical  works,  a 
thorough  knowledge  of  the  Greek  language  and  literature:  before 
he  was  out  of  his  'teens  he  began  composing  poetry  on  Greek 
models :  among  his  tutors  were  Archias  the  poet 7  and  Phaedrus 
the  Epicurean.     The  grammarians  and  rhetoricians  of  his  time,  as^ 
at  an  earlier  and  a  later  date,  were  generally  freedmen  or  slaves. 
Of  their  schools,  their  methods  of  instruction,  and  their  status  as  a 
class,  we  have  to  wait  for  full  information  till  the  time  of  Juvenal 
and  Quintilian. 

1  Juv.  vii.  226  '  Cum  totus  decolor  esset  |  Flaccus  et  haereret  nigro'fuligo  Maroni.' 

a  Quint,  i.  8.  §  55  'Optima  inslitutum  ut  ab  Hotnero  et  Vergilio  lectio  inciperet; 
utilcs  tragoediae  ;  alunt  et  lyrici,  si  in  his  non  auctores  modo  sed  etiam  partes  operis 
elegeris.'  Cicero's  speeches  were  also  read  by  boys;  vide  Cic.  ad  Q.  F.  iii.  i.  4. 

3  Cic.  apud  Suet.  Rhet.  2  '  Continebar  autem  doctissimorum  hominum  opinione,  qui 
existimabant  Graecis  exercitationibus  ali  melius  ingenia  posse.' 

*  Tac.  Dial.  xxxv.  'L.  Crasso  et  Domitio  censoribus  eludere,  ut  ait  Cicero,  ludum 
impudentiae  iussi  sunt.'  5  Rhetor,  i. 

6  Seneca,  Contr.  i.  Pr.  §12'  Declamabat  autem  Cicero  non  quales  nunc  controversias 
dicimus.' 

7  Cic.  Brutus,  Ivi.  205,  Pro  Archia. 


3$        Theory  and  Practice  of  A  ncient  Education. 


5  5.   EDUCATION  IN  THE  TIME  OF  CICERO  (continued). 
(y)  Young  Manhood :  Completion  of  Eaucation. 

'  Sive  quod  es  liber  vest  is  quoque  libera  per  te 

Sutnitur  et  vitae  liberioris  iter.' — OVID,  Trist.  v.  777. 

The  study  of  rhetoric  would  ordinarily  continue  till  about *  the 
sixteenth  year,  when  the  toga  virilis  or  libera  was  assumed,  and 
the  bulla  laid  aside.  In  some  cases  this  meant  the  end  of.  educa- 
tion, in  some  the  commencement  of  apprenticeship  to  political 
life  or  military  training:  to  the  future  orator  it  was  the  beginning 
of  a  new  period  of  education,  under  conditions  of  greater  freedom. 
Cicero  at  this  age  does  not  diminish  but  rather  increases  the 
severity  of  his  studies  2.  Following  a  common  practice  8,  he  was 
now  put  under  the  care  of  the  orator  Scaevola,  Whom  he  accom- 
panied to  the  forum  and  the  courts,  listening  to  his  speeches,  and 
to  his  *  responsa/  or  c  opinions/  This  was  known  as  the  '  tiroci- 
nium fori,*  which  in  some  cases  was  begun  by  an  entrance  into  the 
forum  with  an  escort,  and  a  sacrifice  on  the  Capitol.  During  this 
year,  besides  acquiring  knowledge  of  law  and  of  oratory,  the  young 
man  has  to  learn  how  to  bear  himself,  and  to  accustom  himself  to 
the  ways  of  the  fonim  4.  Though  allowed  to  begin  speaking  from 
this  time,  it  was  not  thought  consistent  with  modesty  to  do  so  at 
once.  Hortensius  began  at  the  age  of  nineteen,  and  that  was 
considered  young  5.  But  this  training  by  experience  was  not  all : 
during  these  years  Cicero  was  continuing  his  study  of  rhetoric,  and 
was  practising  declamation.  Above  all,  he  was  prosecuting  with 
zeal  the  study  of  philosophy,  and  that  not  with  a  view  to  writing 
the  Academica  or  the  Tusculan  Disputations,  but  as  an  important 
_  and  necessary  part  of  the  training  of  an  orator 6.  The  circum- 
stances of  the  time  made  oratory  of  paramount  importance:  oratory 
became  the  final  end  of  the  highest  education:  and  in  Cicero's 
time,  as  in  Quintilian's,  the  ideal  standard  of  good  oratory  was  put 
very  high.  Cicero  did  not  mean  by  a  good  orator  a  man  of 
natural  gifts  and  fluency  developed  by  sufficient  practice  in  speak- 
ing, but  a  man  of  the  widest  culture  and  knowledge,  well  read  in 
history  and  poetry,  a  dialectician  and  a  philosopher :  he  must  have 

1  The  exact  age  was  probably  not  fixed.    Cicero  and  Persius  (Pers.  v.  30)  assumed 

it  at  the  beginning  of  their  i6th  year :  Nero  at  14,  unusually  early  (Tac.  Ann.  xii.  41). 

3  Brutus  xc.  '  Noctes  et  dies  in  omnium  cloctrinarum  meditatione  versabar.' 

3  Tac.  Dial,  xxxiv.  'Deducebatur  a  patre  vel  a  propinquis  ad  eum  oratorem  qui  prinr 

cipem  locum  in  civitate  obtinebat.     Hunc  sectari  hunc  prosequi  huius  omnibus  die* 

tionibus  interesse  assuescebat  sive  in  iudiciis  sive.in  contionibus.'    Cf.  Cic.  de  Amic.  i. 

*  Cic.  Pro  Caeiio  v.  '  Nobis  quidcm  olitn  annns  erat  ad  cohibendnm  bracchium  toga 
constitutus.' 

s  Cic.  Brut.  bav.  •  Cum  admodum  adolesceng  orsus  esset  in  foro  dicere." 

*  Cic.  Or.    Hi.;   Tac.  Dial,   xxxii.  'Cicero  quidquid  in  eloquentia  efTeceht   non 
rhetorum  Scholis  sed  Academiae  spatiis  se  esse  consecutnm  dixit ;'  ibid,  xxxix.  'E  multa 
erwlitione  et  plurimis  artibus  et  omne  rerum  scientia  exundat  et  exuberat  ilia  admira- 
bilis  eloquentia.' 


Education  al  Rome.  39 

strength  of  character  also,  an  honourable  ambition,  and  a  control 
over  his  passions. 

To  return  to  the  study  of  philosophy,  in  which  Cicero  and  many 
of  his  contemporaries  spent  some  time,  instruction  might  be  pro- 
cured from  stray  philosophers  who  resorted  to  Rome,  like  Philo, 
into  whose  hands  Cicero  put  himself1,  and  we  find  in  Cicero's 
letters  notices  of  philosophers  residing  in  the  houses  of  wealthy 
Romans — <ro$ot  -napa  irXovcri&v  tfupats.  But  it  was  not  uncommon 
for  young  men  to  go  abroad  to  Athens  or  Rhodes  or  Massilia  to 
finish  their  course  of  rhetoric  and  to  learn  philosophy.  In  this  way 
Horace  resided  for  some  time  at  Athens2,  and  Cicero  in  an  inter- 
val of  quasi-leisure  enforced  by  ill  health  went  to  Athens,  and  then 
travelled  through  Asia,  availing  himself  everywhere  of  the  best 
masters3.  Travelling,  especially  in  Greece  and  Asia,  was  also 
undertaken  for  amusement  or  general  information,  without  any 
special  object. 

If  the  youth  was  destined  for  a  military  career,  and  oratory  was  y 
only  a  secondary  consideration,  it  was  usual  for  him  to  gain  ex- 
perience by  going  on  a  campaign,  and  if  his  family  had  sufficient 
position  and  influence,  he  would  be  attached  to  the  general  and 
put  under  his  charge  4, 

Such  was  the  general  outline  of  education  during  the  latter 
years  of  the  Republic  6.  We  have  the  three  steps  of  education 
more  or  less  clearly  defined — the  teaching  of  the  litterator,  the 
grammaticus,  and  the  rhetor ;  and  to  this  was  sometimes  added 
the  higher  education  in  advanced  rhetoric  and  philosophy ;  the  aim 
of  the  whole  being  oratorical  proficiency.  Cato  the  elder  had 
reckoned  as  elements  of  non-professional  culture  a  knowledge  of 
oratory,  agriculture,  law,  war,  and  medicine:  a  comparison  with 
this  of  Varro's  list  is  instructive6.  We  find  that  he  enumerates 
grammar,  dialectics,  rhetoric,  geometry,  arithmetic,  astronomy,  and 
music:  military  science,  jurisprudence,  and  agriculture  are  no 
longer  general,  but  professional  studies* 

We  have  seen  in  what  manner  most  of  the  studies  mentioned 
by  Varro  were  taught :  we  may  now  briefly  notice  the  others  — 
music,  geometry,  and  astronomy,  their  place  in  Roman  education 
being  rather  obscure.  Music  occupied  a  much  less  prominent 
position  than. in  Greek  education,  and  we  may  doubt  whether 
instruction  in  singing  was  universal,  though  we  find  both  boys  and 

1  'Totum  ei  me  tradidi'  (Brut.  Ixxxix.). 

2  Hor.  Epp.  U.  2.  43  *  Adiecere  bonae  paullo  plus  artis  Athenae  |  scilicet  at  vellem 
curvo  dignoscere  rectum  |  atque  inter  silvas  Academi  quaerere  verum.' 

3  Tac.  Dial.  xxx.  'Neque  his  doctoritras  contentum  quorum  ei  copia  in  urbe  contigerat 
Achaiarn  quoque  atque  Asiam  peragrasse,  nt  ornnern  artium   varietatem   complec- 
teretur,' 

*  Cic.  Pro  Caelio  xxx.  'Cum  autem  paullum  roboris  accessisset  aetati  in  Africam 
profectus  est,  Q.  Pompeio  proconsul!  contubernalis.' 

4  Some  of  the  references  given  have  been  taken  for  purposes  of  illustration  from 
authors  of  later  date,  where  there  is  no  reason  to  suppose  any  difference  from  the 
practice  of  Cicero's  time. 

6  Made  by  Mommsen,  R.  H.  vol.  iv. 


4O        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 


i 


girls  trained  in  it  for  the  purposes  of  religious  ceremonies l.  Danc- 
ing was  considered  degrading2,  and  was  left  to  professional  per- 
formers. Geometry  is  one  of  the  subjects  enumerated  by  Varro, 
and  Quintilian  held  that  it  was  necessary  for  an  orator,  but  says 
nothing  about  teaching  either  geometry  or  astronomy.  Geography 
came  to  be  more  necessary  as  Roman  conquest  extended,  and  wars 
with  the  Cantabrian  or  the  Parthian  stimulated  enquiry  about  the 
neighbours  of  Rome  3. 

Most  of  the  notices  of  the  education  of  women  come  from  later 
writers,  and  may  be  best  discussed  in  connection  with  imperial 
times. 

§  6.    EDUCATION  IN  THE  TIME  OF  CICERO  (continued). 
(d)   Physical  E.ducation. 

We  need  not  be  delayed  long  by  the  discussion  of  physical 
training  at  Rome,  for,  though  physical  vigour  was  not  undervalued, 
physical  education  was  never  systematised.  Horace  gives  us  so 
good  a  picture  of  the  sports  and  exercises  from  which  a  lovesick 
youth  was  absenting  himself4  that  it  is  perhaps  worth  quoting  at 
length  :— 

4  Cur  apricuni 

Oderit  cainpum  patiens  pulveris  atque  solis  ? 
Cur  neque  militaris 

Inter  aequales  equitat,  Galljca  nee  lupatis 
Temperat  ora  frenis? 

Cur  timet  flavum  Tiberim  tangere?  cur  olivum 
Sanguine  viperino 

Cautius  vital  neque  iam  livida  gestat  armis 
Braechia,  saepe  disco, 

Saepe  trans  finem  iaculo  nobilis  expedite  ?' 

Here  we  have  swimming,  wrestling,  riding,  and  throwing  the 
iaculum  and  the  discus,  and  we  have  frequent  mention  of  hunting6: 
\all  these  were  thought  valuable  for  the  development  of  the  body, 
and  to  be  a  good  athlete  was  evidently  considered  honourable ;  but 
I  at  the  same  time  these  exercises  were  not  organized  as  a  definite 
part  of  education  with  regular  instructors  like  the  Greek  7rai8orpt/3ai. 
Gymnasia  v/ere  not  common  till  some  time  after  the  establishment 
of  the  Empire,  when  they  took  their  place  among  the  adjuncts  of 
the  great  baths  6 ;  and  they  were  always  regarded  by  moralists  as 
fostering  idleness  and  immorality,  whilst  failing  to  develope 

1  Hor.  Od.  iv.  6.  31  '  Virginum  primae  puerique  claris  I  patribus  orti  .  .  .  Lesbium 
servate  pedem  meique  j  pollicis  ictum.' 

a  Cio.  Pro  Mur.  vi.  13  '  Nemo  fere  saltat  sobrius  nisi  forte  insantt.'  Cf.  Senec.  Con 
frov.  Praef.  §  i. 

3  Prop.  iv.  3.  35  '  Et  disco  qua  parte  fluat  vincend-us  Araxes.* 

*  Hor.  Od.  i.  8.  8  seq. 

5  Ibid.  Ep.  i.  1 8.  49  '  Romanis  solemne  vires  opus  utilefamae  \  vitaeque  et  membris 
praesertim  quum  valearet  I  vel  cursu  superare  canem  vel  viribus  aprum  I  possis.'  Cf. 
Od.  i.  i.  26. 

*  In  the  baths  of  Caracalla  the  site  of  the  gymnasia  can  be  tolerably  accurately 
determined. 


Education  at  Rome.  41 

physique  in  any  great  degree l :  and  in  place  of  the  games  of  the 
great  Greek  festivals  the  Roman  was  well  content  with  the  more 
brutal  sport  afforded  by  trained  gladiators. 


§  7.  EDUCATION  UNDER  THE  EMPIRE. 

'  Cum  tot  sustineas  et  tanta  negotia  solus, 
Res  Italas  armis  tuteris,  moribus  ornes, 
Legibus  emendes.' — HOR.  Ep.  to  Augusttis 

With  the  establishment  of  the  Empire  we  find  in  education,  as 
in  other  things,  greater  elaboration  and  system :  a  process  of  as- 
similation and  reduction  to  rule  begins :  imperial  patronage  is 
extended  to  education  and  educators :  endowments  multiply  and 
schools  spring  up  in  the  provinces,  amidst  the  newer  civilization  of 
Gaul  and  Spain,  as  well  as  in  the  older  province  of  Africa2,  which 
earned  the  title  of  'the  nurse  of  pleaders,'  whilst  St.  Augustine, 
with  pardonable  patriotism,  compares  Carthage  to  Rome  as  a  seat 
of  learning3.  Before  the  time  of  Suetonius  grammar  had  become 
a  common  study  in  the  provinces,  and  many  of  the  best  teachers 
taught  there,  especially  in  Gaul 4.  We  have  an  interesting 
account  in  Pliny's  letters  6  of  the  condition  of  education  in  Nor- 
thern Italy.  Pliny  mentions  that  when  at  Comum  he  found  the 
son  of  a  municeps  going  to  school  at  Mediolanum,  and  on  asking 
his  father  why  he  sent  him  so  far  away,  he  received  the  answer  that 
there  was  no  good  school  nearer.  Pliny  takes  the  opportunity  ot 
haranguing  him  and  other  parents  on  the  advantages  of  having 
their  sons  educated  nearer  home G,  and  offers  to  contribute  one- 
third  of  what  they  could  raise:  he  would  give  more  did  he  not 
think  it  better  that  the  parents  should  contribute  the  greater  part 
themselves,  and  thus  be  able  to  exercise  more  control  over  the 
teachers :  '  for,'  he  says,  l  where  masters  are  paid  out  of  public 
funds,  which  is  the  case  in  many  places^  inefficiency  is  generally 
the  result7.  This  shows  the  prevalence  of  endowments  or  public 
pay  of  some  kind,  and  Vespasian,  we  are  told,  spent  an  annual 
sum  out  of  the  fiscus  on  the  payment  of  rhetors 8,  whilst 

1  Juv.  iii.  115  Transi  j  gymnasia  atque  audi  facinus  maioris  abollae;'  Pliny,  H.  N. 
xxix.  8  '  Ilia  perdidere  imperii  mores  ;*  xxxv.  47  '  Quibus  exercendo  iuventus  nostra 
corporis  vires  perdidit  animorum.'  Cf.  Petron.  Ixxxv.  and  Seneca  passim, 

1  Juv.  vii.  147  'Accipiat  te  |  Gallia  vel  potius  nutricula  causidicorum  |  Africa.'  Cf. 
xv.  3  '  De  conducendo  loquitur  iam  rhetore  Thule.' 

8  Ep.  xi.  8,  9  '  Duae  tantae  urbes  Latinarum  litterarum  artifices,  Roma  atque  Car- 
thago.' Cf.  Salvian.  de  Gubern.  Dei  vii.  'Illicartium  liberalium  scholae,  illic  philoso- 
phorutn  officinae.' 

4  Suet,  de  Gramm.  iii.  'Nam  in  provincias  quoque  grammatica  pervenerat  ac  non- 
nulli  de  notissimis  doctoribus  peregre  docuenint,  maxime  in  Gallia  Comata.' 

5  Pliny,  Epp.  iv.  13. 

'  Loc.  cit.  '  Ubi  enim  aut  iucundius  morarentur  quam  in  patria  aut  pudicius  con  tine 
rentur  quam  sub  oculis  parentum  aut  minore  sumptu  quam  domi  ?  ' 

7  Ibid.  '  Ne  quandoque  ambitu  comimperetur  ut  multis  in  locis  accidere  video  in 
quibus  praeceptores  publice  conducuntur.' 

8  Suet.  Vesp.  xviii, 


42        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

Quintilian  received  a  salary  from  the  public  funds.  In  spite 
of  this  the  lot  of  the  ordinary  teacher  of  grammar  or  rhetoric  was 
an  unenviable  one,  and  they  were  notoriously  ill-paid.  The  age 
of  Juvenal  was  an  age  of  luxury,  but  nothing,  he  tells  us,  cost  a 
father  less  than  his  son's  education  J.  For  this  small  reward  the 
master  had  to  submit  to  the  constant  monotony  of  the  same 
lessons  2,  and  to  the  reproaches  of  parents  if  their  children  failed 
to  come  up  to  the  expectations  which  their  relations  had  formed  of 
them3.  Sometimes  apparently  they  had  to  defend  themselves 
against  actual  assault  from  their  pupils  *.  Moreover  they  were 
expected  to  be  omniscient:  to  have  an  answer  ready  for  every 
question,  even  down  to  the  name  of  the  nurse  of  Anchises,  or  the 
age  of  Acestes5.  They  still  came  principally  from  the  Mower 
classes' — slaves  and  freedmen — even  the  most  successful,  like 
Staberius  Eros,  Caecilius  Epirota,  Verrius  Flaccus,  Julius  Ijyginus, 
and  Q.  Remmius  Palaemon.  The  latter  was  one  of  the  most 
successful  teachers  of  his  day,  although  a  man  of  infamous  character : 
how  infamous  may  be  best  estimated  from  the  fact  that  both  Tibe- 
rius and  Claudius  declared  him  to  be  totally  unfit  to  have  boys 
entrusted  to  his  care6.  Indeed  the  morality  of  the  masters  was 
often  very  doubtful,  and  made  the  choice  of  a  school  a  serious 
question  7 :  we  find  Juvenal,  Pliny,  and  Quintilian  all  insisting 
on  the  caution  necessary  in  this  respect  if  a  father  wished  his  son 
to  escape  corruption 8.  This  was,  however,  only  part  of  the  general 
decay  of  morality,  which  the  best  of  the  emperors  in  vain  endea- 
voured to  arrest 9.  But  the  sanctity  of  family  life  could  not  be 
restored  by  bribes  or  penalties :  purity  and  frugality  were  out  of 
fashion  10,  and  the  family  had  become  a  centre  of  corruption  and 
evil  examples  instead  of  the  source  of  every  wholesome  influence  u. 
In  his  own  home  and  from  his  own  parents  the  Romao  youth 
learnt  extravagance  and  selfishness,  dissolute  conversation,  even 
gross  immorality :  nor  were  matters  mended  if,  as  was  not.  un- 
common at  this  time,  the  parents  saw  little  of  their  own  children, 
and  left  them  to  the  care  of  a  Greek  maid-servant,  or  a  slave  peda- 

1  Juv.  vii.  187  'Res  nulla  tninoris  oonsiabit  patri  quam  filius.'     Cf.  ibid.  174  'Sum- 
mula  ne  pereat  qua  vilis  tessera  venit  fromenti.'     Grammarians  were  worse  off  than 
rhetors;  ibid.  217  'Minus  est  autem  quam  rhetoris  aera.' 

2  Ibid.  154  'Occidit  miseros  crambe  repetita  magistros.' 

3  Ibid.  158  'Culpa  docentis  |  scilicet  arguitur  si  laeva  in  parte  mamillae  j  nil  salit 
Arcadico  iuveni.' 

*  Ibid.  213.    Cf.  Plaut.  Bacch.  441.  6  Juv.  vii.  233. 

"  Suet.  Gramm.  xxiii.  '  Principem  locum  inter  gramma ticos  tenuit,  quanquam  infamis 
omnibus  vitiis  palamque  et  Tiberio  et  Claudio  praedicantibus  netnini  minus  institutio- 
nem  inveuum  commit tendam.' 

T  Juv.  x.  224  '  Hamillus.'     AUSOD,  Epigr.  i  23,  124,  Eunus. 

*  Juv.  x.  228  'Exigite  tit  sic  et  pater  ipsius  coetus  ne  turpia  ludant,*  Pliny  iii.  3,  4 
lam  circumspiciendus  rhetor  Latinns  cuius  schoiae  severitas  pudor  inprimis  castitas 

constet.'     Cf.  Quint  ii.  2..§  4. 

*  Augustus,  Mon-  Ancyr.  '  Exempla  maiorum  exolescentia  revocavi;'  Her.  Od.  iv. 
5.  22  '  Mos  et  lex  maculosum  edomuit  nefas ' 

10  Tac.  Germania  xix.  '  Corrumpere  et  coirumpi  seculum  vocatur.' 

11  Quint,  i.  2.  6,  Juv.  xiv.  32  'Corrumpunt  vmorum  exempla  aomestica  magnis  |  cum 
subeunt  animos  auctoribus;'  ibid.  52  'Morum  filius;'  Seneca  passim,  Tacit.  Dial.xxix. 


Education  at  Rome.  43 

gogue1,  often  chosen  from  among  the  most  worthless  of  the 
household,  by  whose  stories  and  examples  the  young  mind  could 
not  but  be  influenced  for  evil.  At  school  again,  besides  the  danger 
of  'sending  a  boy  to  an  unscrupulous  master,  there  was  the  danger 
from  his  companions2,  which  led  some  more  careful  parents  to 
prefer  a  home  education  3.  The  times  were  out  of  joint,  and  it 
was  beyond  the  power  of  the  Emperors  to  set  them  right.  The 
most  powerful  lever  was  wanting  :  religious  ceremonies  had  multi- 
plied, but  religion  was  dead  :  it  never  had  exercised  any  great  moral 
influence,  but  now  at  the  shrines  of  Bacchus,  Isis,  and  Cybele. 
immorality  was  actually  worshipped. 

In  the  subjects  taught  in  the  schools,  and  in  the  general  aim  of 
education  during  this  period,  we  do  not  encounter  any  great 
changes.  We  have  the  three  stages  under  the  litterator,  the  gram- 
maticus,  and  the  rhetor,  though  better  defined ;  the  aim  of  the 
system  is  still  to  produce  the  perfect  orator,  though  liberty,  the 
most  essential  condition  of  successful  oratory,  had  vanished,  and 
the  empire  had  *  pacified '  eloquence,  as  it  had  pacified  all  else4.  It 
is  a  remarkable,  almost  a  melancholy  fact  to  notice,  that  at  the  very 
time  when  eloquence  could  do  nothing  to  benefit  the  State,  and 
very  little  to  advance  the  fortunes  of  the  individual,  it  was  made 
more  than  ever  the  chief  object  of  years  of  training.  The  natural 
consequence  was  that  the  style  of  speaking  became  unreal  and(! 
vapid 6,  and  the  training  unpractical 6.  But  of  this  we  shall  see  more 
when  we  come  to  examine  the  system  elaborated  by  Quintilian. 

We  get  indications  at  the  same  time  of  a  growth  of  minute 
erudition,  both  amongst  those  who  were  engaged  in  teaching  and 
among  amateurs.  The  most  minute  points  in  mythology7  were 
discussed  in  connection  with  Homer  and  the  tragedians,  and  much 
ingenuity  was  expended  in  evolving  the  pedantic  obscurities  of 
Lycophron  and  Callimachus,  whilst  Vergil's  poems  came  in  for  a 
large  share  of  attention,  both  as  to  substance  and  language8. 
Gellius  *  gives  us  a  number  of  questions  discussed  by  a  party  of 

1  Tacit.  Dial.  28  'At  nnnc  natus  infans  delegatur  Graeculae  alicui  ancillae  cui  adiun- 
gitiir  unus  aut  alter  ex  omnibus  servis  pkintmque  vilissimus  nee  cuiquam  serio  minis 
terio  accornmodatus.  Horum  fabalis  et  erroribus  teneri  statim  et  rudes  animi  imbuun- 
tur.  Quint,  i.  2,  6  'Pudenda  dictu  spectantui,  fit  ex  his  consuetude,  indc  natttra.' 

*  Quint,  ii.  2.  §§  14,  15  'Pueros  adolescentibus  sedere  permixtos  non  placet:  infir- 
mitas  a  robustioribus  separanda  est,  et  carendum  non  soluin  crimine  lurpitudine  sed 
etiam  suspicions' 

J  Ibid.  i.  2.  4  'Corrumpi  mores  in  scholis  putant:  nam  et  corumptmtnr  interim, 
sed  domi  quoque  :  et  multa  eius  rei  exempla.' 

'  Eloquentiam  sicnt  omnia  pacaverat,  Tacitus. 

6  Tac.  Or.  xxxix. '  Est  aliquis  oratorum  campus  per  quern  nisi  liberi  et  soluti  fcrnntur 
debilitatur  et  frangifur  eloquentia.* 

*  Mart.  vi.  19  '  Tu  Cannas  Mithridaticumqne  bellum,  et  periuria  Punici  furoris  | 
magna  voce  sonas  manuque  tota:  |  iam  die,  Postume,  de  tribns  capellis;'  Tac.  Dial. 
xxxv.     On  the  'suasoriae*  and  'controversiae  '  see  Juv.  i.  16;  vii.  102. 

7  Suet.  Tib.  Ixx. '  Grammaticos  appetebat  eiusmodi  fere  quaestiones  experiebatur . . . 
quae  mater  Hecubae,  qnod  Achilli  nomen  inter  virgines.' 

8  Juv.  vii.  234  '  Dicat  quot  Acestes  vixerit  annia  |  quot  Siculus  Phrygibus  vim  dona 
verit  tunas.* 

*  Aulus  Gellius  xviii.  2 


44        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

students  at  Athens,  out  of  which  the  most  important  was,  What  was 
meant  by  Plato's  community  of  women  ?  amongst  the  other  ques- 
tions proposed  were,  What  tense  are  'scripserim  '  and  *  venerim  '  ? 
What  poet  uses  *  verant '  ?  What  is  the  meaning  of  <  asphodel,'  and 
irAcW  q/uoi;  Trauro?  in  Hesiod ?  The  same  author  tells  us1  that  a 
learned  friend  lent  him  his  note-book  to  make  use  of  in  writing  his 
'  Noctes  Atticae,'  but  he  found  it  quite  useless,  as  it  was  full  of  dis- 
cussions about  the  names  of  the  comrades  of  Ulysses,  and  why 
Telemachus  aroused  Peisistratus  with  his  foot  and  not  with  his  hand. 
Erudition  on  such  subjects,  which,  as  Quintilian  remarked,  should 
be  unlearnt  if  once  acquired  2,  now  passed  for  culture,  and  the  early 
emperors  were  purists  in  orthography  and  grammar  3. 

Of  the  education  of  women  we  get  some  notices  in  this  period  : 
in  pre-imperial  times  they  are  rare.  Virginia,  according  to  the 
accounts  given  by  Livy  and  Dionysius,  was  at  her  lessons  in  a 
ludus  literarius  in  thetabernae,  near  the  Forum,  when  she  was  seen 
by  Appius  Claudius  4,  and  though  the  story  may  be  mythical,  it 
points  to  some  kind  of  education  having  been  given  to  girls  beyond 
the  home  circle.  The  .*  discipuiae '  mentioned  by  Horace  are  pro- 
bably the  pupils  in  a  musical  school5;  but  in  Martial  we  get  evi- 
dence of  their  frequenting  elementary  schools6,  and  perhaps  they 
may  have  gone  to  the  grammatici  also.  From  Pliny7  and  Seneca8 
we  find  that  they  had  paedagogi.  and  a  system  of  home  education. 
Sometimes  ladies  pursued  their  studies  far,  and  affected  erudition 
and  literary  criticism,  even  in  their  conversation  at  banquets 9,  like 
the  bluestockings,  of  whose  importunities  Juvenal  complains ;  but 
there  is  no  evidence,  and  less  probability,  that  these  '  antiquariae  ' 
formed  any  considerable  proportion  of  the  flippant  and  dissolute 
society  of  the  time, 

§  8.  QUINTILIAN'S  THEORY  OF  EDUCATION. 

*  Mea  quidem  sementia  nemo  esse  potest  omni  laude  cumulatus  orator,  nisi  erit 
omnium  rerum  rnagnarum  atque  artium  scientiam  consecutus.' — Cic.  apud  Quint,  ii. 

81.   14. 

There  could  scarcely  be  a  better  instance  of  the  difference 
between  the  Greek  and  the  iCoinan^tia^n  the  comparison  of  the 
theorists  about  education  in  th6>  two  countries.  Quintilian  sees  no 
Platonic  visions,  and  aims  at  n6  ideal  end.  He  takes  education 

1  Aulus  Gellius  xiv.  6  'Dat  mihi  librum  grandi  volumine  "doctrinis  omnigenis"  ut 
ipse  dicebat  "  praescatentem  "  quern  sibi  elaboratum  esse  ait  ex  multis  et  variis  et  re- 
tnotis  lectionibus,  ut  ex  eo  snmerem  quantum  liberet  rerum  memoria  dignarum  .  .  . 
recondo  me  penitus  ut  sine  arbitris  legam.  At  quae  ibi  scripta  erant,  pro  Juppiter ! 
mera  miracula ! ' 

a  '  Quae  erant  dediscenda  si  scires.' 

9  Augustus  wrote  '  maxumus.'  Claudius  introduced  reforms  into  the  alphabet. 
Tiberius  discussed  mythological  questions. 

*  Livy  iii.  44;  Dionys.  xi.  28. 

5  Sat.  i.  io.  90  'Demetri  teque  Tigelli  discipularum  inter  iubeo  plorare  cathedras.' 

*  Mart.  ix.  68  'Ludi  scelerate  magister  invisum  pueris  virginibusque  caput.' 

7  Pliny,  Epp.  v.  16.  *  Sen.  Epp.  xvii.  4. 

'  Juv.  vi.  434  '  Ilia  tamen  gravior  quae  quum  discumbere  coepit  laudat  Vergilium.' 


Education  at  Rome.  45 


as  he  finds  it,  and  in  the  light  of  his  years  of  experience  as  the  fore-] 
most  man  in  the  teaching  profession  at  Rome  l  he  criticises  the 
methods  which  were  in  vogue,  and  suggests  alterations.  He  lived 
in  an  age  of  words,  not  of  action,  when  to  speak  fluently  on  any  sub- 
ject at  a  moment's  notice  was  the  accomplishment  most  envied  by 
men  of  culture2.  There  was  little  practical  sphere  for  eloquence, and, 
if  there  had  been,  this  training  in  { suasoriae  '  and  '  controversiae  ' 
would  not  have  been  likely  to  develope  its  practical  side.  Quin- 
tilian  defends  this  race  for  eloquence  by  saying  that  we  must  seek 
eloquence  for  its  own  sake,  and  *  learn  to  love  it  ere  to  us  it  will 
seem  worthy  of  our  love  V  At  the  same  time,  by  making  it  in- 
clude almost  every  human  excellence  of  mind  and  character,  he 
renders  it  more  easy  for  us  to  acknowledge  it  as  an  adequate  aim  4. 
It  is  the  discussion  of  the  means  to  this  end  that  occupies  the  rest 
of  his  work,  which  is  so  characterized  by  earnestness  and  practical 
good  sense,  that  it  will  repay  us  to  follow  him  through  his  directions 
for  the  early  training  of  the  young  orator. 

The  first  necessity  is  that  parents  should  be  hopeful  about  their 
children,  and  sanguine  of  the  results  of  education,  for  even  those 
who  are  not  brilliant  gain  something  from  study  5  ;  next,  they  must 
be  careful  in  selecting  nurses  and  paedagogi  to  look  after  their 
children ;  the  nurses,  besides,  being  respectable  women,  ought  to 
speak  correctly  6,  whilst  the  paedagogi  ought  to  be  either  really  well 
informed,  or  else  conscious  of  their  own  ignorance,  for  with  them 
4  a  little  knowledge  is  a  dangerous  thing7.'  The  parents,  too,  them- 
selves ought  to  be  cultured,  mothers  as  well  as  fathers :  a  learned 
mother  may,  like  Cornelia,  contribute  largely  to  her  son's  future 
success8.  A  mistake  that  is  commonly  made  is  to  let  children  '  lie 
fallow  '  till  the  age  of  seven  ;  but  this  is  a  waste  of  time  8 ;  educa- 
tion should  begin  early,  and  the  earliest  studies  should  consist 
chiefly  in  the  exercise  of  memory,  which  is  then  most  tenacious  ; 
they  must,  moreover,  be  made  as  agreeable  as  possible:  'the  child 
cannot  yet  love  them,  but  he  should  not  hate  them  10/  It  is  pre- 
ferable to  begin  by  learning  Greek,  not  Latin  ;  Latin  will  be  to  a 
large  extent  spontaneously  acquired,  though  some  teaching  will  be 

1  Mart.  ii.  90  '  Quintiliane  vagae  moderator  summe  iuventae  |  gloria  Romanae 
Qnintiliane  togae.' 

3  Gellins  ix.  15  describes  a  young  man  speaking  extempore,  'incipit  statim  mira 
celeritate.' 

3  Quint.  Inst.  Or.  i.  12  18  'Illam  .  .  .  reginam  reram  orationem  ponet  ante  oculos 
fructuraque  non  ex  stipe  advocatorum  sed  ex  anirno  suo  et  contemplatione  et  scientia 
petet  perpetuum  ilium  nee  fortunae  subiectum.' 

*  Pref.  §  9  '  Oratorem  instituimus  ilium  perfectum  qui  esse  nisi  vir  bonus  non  potest 
ideoque  .  .  .  omnes  animi  virtutes  exigimus.' 

3  i.  i.  3  '  Nemo  reperitur  qui  sit  studio  nihil  consecutus.' 

6  i.  i.  4  'Et  morum  quidem  in  his  baud  dubie  prior  ratio  est,  recte  tamen  loquantur.' 

7  i.  i .  8  '  De  paedagogis  hoc  amplius  ut  aut  sint  eruditi  plene ;   aut  se  non  esse 
erudites  sciant.' 

•  i.  i.  6  'Nee  de  patribus  tantum  loquor :    nam  Gracchorum  eloquentiae  multum 
contulisse  aceepimus  Corneliam  matrem.' 

9  i.  i.  19  'Quantum  in  infantia  presutriptum  est  temporis,  adulescentiae  adquiritur.' 
w  i.  i.  20  'Id  in  primis  cavere  oportebit,  ne  qui  studia  nond;im  amare  potest  oderit.' 


46         Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 


necessary  to  ensure  correctness  of  speech  *.  Reading  must  be 
taught  systematically:  first  the  forms  of  the  separate  letters  must 
be  learned  and  then  all  their  combinations  into  syllables2  Writ- 
ing should  be  taught  by  having  letters  cut  on  a  board,  for  the  child 
to  trace  out  with  his  stylus ,  good  and  lapid  writing  is  too  seldom 
acquired.  And  Quintilian  adds  the  somewhat  curious  remark,  that 
slow  writing  interrupts  thought  3.  The  sentences  in  the  copy-books 
should  be  made  use  of  to  convey  good  lessons,  not  mere  empty 
phrases  4.  Learning  by  heart  of  passages  from  poets  should  also  be 
encouraged,  and  careful  pronunciation  insisted  on  5. 

So  far  the  child's  education  may  take  place  at  home,  but  sooner 
or  later  parents  must  force  the  question  whether  they  will  keep  their 
son  at  home  or  send  him  to  a  school.  On  the  whole,  public  opinion 
is  in  favour  of  the  latter  course,  but  two  weighty  objections  against 
it  must  be  examined.  Firstly,  schools  are  fatal  to  morals  ;  secondly, 
greater  individual  attention  is  possible  with  private  tutors.  The 
first  objection  is  the  most  important :  morals  are  corrupted  at 
school,  but  then  we  must  remember  that  they  are  corrupted  at  home 
also  by  bad  example,  and  contact  with  luxury  and  immorality,  and 
the  vices  of  schools  are  brought  there  from  home6.  As  to  the 
second  objection,  one  teacher  can  take  care  of  several  boys  as  well 
as  he  can  of  one,  and  the  best  teachers  will  be  found  in  the  schools7. 
You  should  always .  select  your  school  carefully,  and  you  need  not 
choose  one  of  the  largest 8.  Then  in  other  respects  a  school  offers 
many  advantages ;  there  is  the  publicity  which  is  so  essential  to 
the  future  orator9;  the  opportunity  of  gauging  his  powers,  and 
being  stimulated  to  rivalry  ;  the  acquisition  of  lifelong  friend- 
ships lo;  the  development  of  common  sense  and  tact .;  the  greater 
keenness  and  enthusiasm  of  the  teacher,  which  cannot  fail  to  react 
on  the  pupil u. 

The  wise  parent  will  thus  prefer  to  send  his  son  to  school,  but 
he  must  look  out  for  a  good  school  and  a  good  teacher.  The  good 

I  Inst.  Or.  i.  i.  12-14. 

3  i.  i.  34-6:  30  'Syllabis  null  am  compendium  est :  perdiscendae  omnes.' 

3  i.  i.  30  'Tnrdior  stilus  cogitationem  moratai.' 

4  i.  i.  31  '  li  quoque  versus  qni  ad  iraitationem  proponuntnr  non  otiosas  velim  sen- 
ten  tias  habeant  sed  honestum  aiiquid  monentes.' 

6  i.  i.  37  '  Non  aliermm  fuerit  exigere  ab  his  aetatibus,  quo  sit  absolutius  os  et 
expressior  sermo.' 

6  i.  3,  4-8  *  Corrumpi  mores  in  scholis  put  ant:   nam  et  cdrrnmpuntur  interim,  sed 
cfomi  quoque  .  .  .  utinam  mores  liberorum  non  ipsi  perderemus, .  .  .  pudenda  dicta 
spectantur :  fit  ex  his  consuetude  inde  natura,  discunt  haec  miseri  anteqnam  sciant 
vitia  esse  :  inde  soluti  et  fluentes  non  accipiunt  ex  scholis  mala  ista,  sed  in  scholas 
offerunt.' 

7  i.  2.  9  *  Optimus  quisque  praeceptor  frequentia  gandet  et  maiore  se  theatro  dignum 
putal.' 

•  i.  2.  16. 

9  i.  a.  17  'Ante  omnia  fnturus  orator  adsuescat  iam  a  tenero  non  reformidare  homines 
neque  ilia  solitaria  et  velut  umbratili  vita  pallescere.' 

'•  i.  2.  20  '  Mitto  amicitias  qnae  ad  senecttitem  usque  firmissime  durant  religiosa 
quadam  necessitudine  imbutae ' 

II  i.  2/29  '  Adicio  praeceptores  non  idem  mentis  ac  spiritus  in  dicendo  posse  con- 
cipere  singulis  tanturn  praesentibus  .  .  .  maxima  enim  pare  eloquentiae  constat  animo. 


Education  at  Rome  47 

teacher,  besides  being  a  man  whose  morality  is  above  suspicion, 
must  be  possessed  of  judgment  and  discrimination.  He  will  first 
of  all  ascertain  the  disposition  and  the  abilities  of  his  pupil,  and 
will  see  what  kind  of  stimulus  it  will  be  best  to  apply1 ,  he  will 
encourage  play  as  well  as  work,  for  it  is  natural  to  youth,  and  reveals 
character  2 ;  though  of  course  there  is  danger  of  its  being  overdone. 
Further,  the  judicious  master  will  be  moderate  in  the  infliction  of 
punishment  •  he  will  not  have  to  cover  his  own  negligence  by  a 
promiscuous  use  of  the  rod,  which  is  both  degrading  and  useless, 
since  boys  become  hardened  to  it 3. 

The  earlier  part»of  the  course  of  study  will  be  pursued  under  a 
grammaticus,  the  later  under  a  rhetor.  The  province  of  the  former 
includes  correct  speaking  and  the  study  of  the  poets  ;  it  is  wider 
than  at  first  sight  it  might  seem  to  be,  for  with  correctness  of  speech 
goes  correct  writing,  and  poetry  embraces  emendation  and  criti- 
cism4; whilst  for  the  explanation  of  its  subject-matter  a  know- 
ledge of  philosophy  and  science  will  be  required  .  nor  can  the  text 
be  properly  treated  Without  ^ome  grasp  of  the  principles  of  sounds 
and  sound-changes  fi,  For  a  good  style  of  speech  there  are  three 
principal  requirements,  (i)  correctness,  (2)  clearness,  (3).  proper 
ornament:  barbarisms  ana  soloecisms  must  be  avoided,  metaphors 
should  be  used  carefully  and  sparingly,  and  unnecessary  archaisms 
should  not  be  affected 6.  Orthography  is  largely  a  matter  of  use, 
but  otherwise  it  ought  to  be  phonetic 7 ;  and  though  correctness  in 
such  matters  may  be  thought  useless  pedantry,  it  is  not  really  so, 
unless  it  prevents  time  being  given  to  other  matters  8.  Reading 
aloud  is  important ;  exact  rules  cannot  be  laid  down  for  it,  but  it 
should  be  manly,  expressive,  and  well  modulated 9.  The  passages 
read  should  be  moral ;  Homer  and  Vergil  are  especially  suited  for 
such  reading,  and  selections  may  be  made  from  other  poets 10. 

Other  studies  besides  these  will  be  wanted  to  complete  the 
'orbis  doctrinae*  before  the  boy  is  ready  to  be  handed  on  to  the 

1  last.  Or.  i.  3.  4-^>  '  Illnd  praecox  genus  non  temere  unquam  pervenit  ad  frugem 
.  .  .  sunt  quidam  nisi  institeris  remissi,  qnidam  imperia  dedignantur.' 

*  i.  3.  xo  '  Nee  me  offendet  lu'sus  in  pueris  neque  ilium  tristem  semperqne  demissnm 
sperare  possim  erectae  circa  studia  mentis  fore;'   ibid.  12  'Mores  quoque  se  inter 
ludendum  simplicius  delegnnt.' 

8  i.  3.  15  ''None  fere  neglegentia  paedagoram  sic  emendari  videtur  tit  pueri  non 
facere  quae  recta  sunt  cogantur,  sed  cur  non  fecerint  puniantur.' 

*  i.  4.  3  '  Haec  professio  cum  brevissime  in  duas  partes  dividatur  recte  loquendi 
scientiam  et  poetarum  enarrationem  plus  habet  in  recessu  quam  fronte  promittit,  nam 
et  scribendi  ratio  coniuncta  cum  .loquendo,  et  enarrationem  praecedit  emendata  lectio, 
et  mixtnm  his  omnibus  indicium/  *  i.  4.  8. 

*  i.  6. 43  'Fuerit  paene  ridiculum  malle  sermonexn  quo  locuti  sint  homines  quam  quo 
loquantur.' 

»•  7-  3O  'Ego  nisi  qaod  conscetudo  optinuerit  sic  scribendum  quoque  iudico  quo- 
modo  sonat.'  *  i.  7-  35. 

9  i.  8.  i  '  Sciat  abi  suspendere  spiritum  debeat,  quo  loco  vereum  distinguere,  ubi 
claudatur  sensus,  unde  incipiat,  quando  attollenda  vel  submittenda  sit  vox.' 

'*  i.  8.  5  'Quae  hoaesU  sunt  discant,  ideoque  optime institutum  ut  ab  Homero  atque 
Vergilio  lectio  inciperct  .  .  .  utiles  tragoediae,  alunt  et  lyrici,  si  in  his  non  auctores 
modo  sed  etiam  partes  operis  elegeris  :  elegeia  vero  et  hendecasyllabi  amoveantur.' 


48         Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 


rhetorician.  Some  acquaintance  with  music  is  necessary  l,  but 
the  music  must  not  be  of  the  lascivious  and  effeminate  sort  now  in 
vogue.  Geometry  too  is  a  useful  study,  not  only  as  a  mental  dis- 
cipline, but  in  itself2,  whilst  the  cogent  proof  demanded  by  it  is 
good  logical  practice  for  a  speaker3.  A  brief  training  in  elocu- 
tion anci  gesture  under  a  comoedus  will  not  be  a  bad  thing,  and 
the  exercises  of  the  palaestra  would  teach  the  young  to  carry  them- 
selves with  grace  4. 

The  objection  will  doubtless  be  made  that  boys  cannot  bear  the 
strain  of  so  many  studies  all  going  on  simultaneously.  The  truth, 
however,  is  that  the  mind  can  attend  to  several  things  at  once,  as 
we  see  in  the  citharoedus,  whose  voice  and  memory,  hands  and 
feet  are  all  employed  together :  it  is  variety  which  increases  our 
power  of  learning  6,  and  learning  is  easier  in  childhood  when  the 
mind  is  still  plastic  and  unformed. 

The  time  will  come  when  the  pupil  must  be  transferred  to  the 
care  of  a  rhetor :  the  age  cannot  be  laid  down  exactly  for  all.  but 
must  vary  with  the  forwardness  of  the  boy  u :  but  the  custom  has 
recently  been  gaining  ground  of  boys  staying  too  long  with  the 
grammatici,  who  begin  to  think  it  their  business  to  teach  declama- 
tion 7.  The  rhetor  ought  to  be  like  a  parent  to  his  pupils  8,  and 
must  therefore  be  above  suspicion :  he  should  try  to  prevent  any 
temptations  being  thrown  in  the  way  of  his  pupils,  and  should  not 
allow  young  men  and  boys  to  sit  together9.  Many  parents  make 
the  mistake  of  sending  their  boys  to  an  inferior  rhetor  first :  but 
this  only  involves  additional  trouble  in  eradicating  acquired 
faults:  there  is  a  story  of  the  rhetor  Timotheus  to  the  effect  that 
he  used  to  demand  double  fees  from  those  who  had  previously 
studied  under  another  rhetor 10. 

The  rhetor  ought  to  begin  where  the  grammarian  leaves  off, 
possibly  going  over  some  of  his  work  again.  Of  the  opposite 
faults  of  style — baldness  and  exuberance — he  will  prefer  the  latter : 
it  is  less  unpleasing  and  can  be  more  easily  cured  lj ;  it  is  natural 
to  youth  and  will  work  itself  out.  Boys  want  a  great  deal  of 
encouragement,  and  become  dispirited  under  excessive  severity 12. 
It  is  a  good  plan  for  the  teacher  (such  has  been  Quintilian's  own 
experience)  to  give  out  his  own  *  fair  copies '  of  exercises  l3,  to  be 

1  Inst.  Or.  i.  10.  15  '  Non  frustra  Plato  civili  viro  quern  iroXm/«Si>  vocant  neeessariam 
musicen  credidit.'  2  i.  10.  34. 

s  i.  10.  37  *Ex  prioribus  geometria  probat  insequentia :  nonne  id  in  dicendo  facimus.' 

*  i.  11.  12-15.  5  *•  I2-  7  '  Eacilius  est  multa  facere  quam  din.*  '  ii.  i.  7 

I  ii.  i.3'ltaqne,   quod  maxime  ridiculum,  non   ante   ad  declamandi  magistrum 
mittendus  videtur  ptoer  quam  declamare  sciat.' 

8  ii.  2.  4  '  Sumat  igitur  parentis  erga  discipulos  suos  animum  .  .  .  ipse  neque  babeat 
vitia  nee  ferat.'  Cf  Juv;  vii.  237. 

•  ii.  2.  14  '  Infirmitas  a  robustioribus  separanda  et  carendttm  non  solum  criraine 
verum  etiam  snspicione.'  10  ii.  3-  3- 

II  ii.  4.  7  '  Materiam  esse  priraum  volo  vel  abundantiorem  atque  ultroquam  oporteat 
fusum  .  .  .  multurn  inde  decoquent  auni,  raultum  ratio  limabit  .  .  .  volo  enim  se  efferat 
in  adulescente  fecunditas.  u  ii.  4.  10  'Dum  omnia  timent  nihil  conantur.' 

13  ii.  4.  13  'Expertus  sum  prodesse  quoties  eandem  materiem  rursus  a  me  tractatam 
scribere  de  integro  iuberem.' 


Comparison  of  the  Greek  and  Roman  Systems.     49 

taken  down  and  compared  with  their  own  attempts :  whilst  in 
marking  the  pupil's  productions  as  satisfactory,  or  the  reverse, 
allowance  should  be  made  for  each  one's  age  and  ability  and  wil- 
lingness to  learn.  Indeed  a  good  teacher  will  note  carefully  the 
differences  of  intellect  and  character,  and  will  see  for  what  line  of 
study  each  is  best  fitted1.  One  may  have  a  turn  for  law,  another 
may  be  best  suited  for  history,  a  third  for  poetry  :  and  education 
ought  to  follow  nature — at  least  up  to  a  certain  point :  for  though 
we  must  not  fight  against  nature,  we  must  endeavour  to  supple- 
ment natural  deficiencies.  We  need  not  enter  with  Quintilian 
into  the  details  of  a  rhetorical  education,  though  his  remarks  as  to 
the  methods  of  teaching  and  the  style  to  be  aimed  at  are  sound 
and  discriminating.  Of  the  three  kinds  of  narratio — fabula, 
argumentum,  historia — the  rhetor  should  begin  with  the  lastt 
when  the  stage  of  declamation  has  been  reached  it  should  assume 
a  more  practical  character  than  the  ordinary  'suasoriae'  and  <con- 
troversiae : '  if  it  is  not  a  preparation  .for  the  forum  it  is  either 
madness  or  ostentation  2.  The  best  style  to  acquire  is  one  which 
is  free  both  from  the  harshness  of  Cato  and  the  Gracchi  and  from 
the  modern  'flosculi  lasciviae.'  Throughout  his  teaching  the 
rhetor  should  stimulate  attention  by  frequent  questions  \  and 
should  read  aloud  and  declaim  himself,  remembering  that  example 
is  better  than  precept 4. 


IV.     COMPARISON  OF  THE  GREEK  AND  ROMAN 

SYSTEMS. 

In  the  educational  systems  and  ideas  which  grew  up  on  different 
sides  of  the  Adriatic  we  may  find  both  common  features  and  points 
of  contrast.  Both  in  Greece  and  at  Rome  the  old  order  gives  place  to 
new  in  spite  of  regrets, denunciations, and  vain  attempts  at  reaction 
only,  as  we  have  seen  in  the  one  case,  the  development  was  the  re- 
sult of  a  developed  national  life,  in  the  other  of  the  revelation  of 
a  full-grown  literature  and  a  ripe  culture  to  a  people  who  had  not 
matured  any  literature  or  culture  of  their  own.  And  possibly  for 
this  reason  the  change  at  Rome  was  greater ;  the  moral  downfall 
was  more  complete,  and  whilst  both  systems  ended  in  a •  '  sea  of 
words/  as  the  importance  attached  to  rhetoric  became  greater,  even 
the  epideictic  displays  of  the  pupils  of  Isocrates  scarcely  sank  to  so 
Iowa  pitch  as  the  'suasoriae'  and  '  controversiae '  of  Juvenal's 

1  Inst.  Or.  ii.  8.  I  '  Notare  discrimina  ingeniorum  et  quo  quemque  natura  maxime 
fcrat  scire.' 

2  ii.  10.  8  'Si  foro  non  praeparet  (ista  exercitatio)  aut  scaenic^e  ostentation!  simillimum 
est  ant  furio&ae  vociferation!.' 

J  ii-  5-  13  '  Debebit  praeceptor  frequenter  interrogare  et  indicium  diseipulorum  ex 
periri  .  .  .  sic  audientibus  securitas  liberit.', 

4  ii.  5-  15  '  In  omnibus  fere  minus  valent  praecepta.' 

£ 


50        Theory  and  Practice  of Ancient  Education. 

time ;  whilst  philosophy  never  occupied  the  same  place  at  Rome 
that  it  secured  in  Greece :  at  Rome  the  only  rival  to  rhetoric  was 
etymological  study  and  the  minute  criticism  and  interpretation  of 
great  writers,  such  as  survive  in  the  works  of  Aulus  Gellius, 
Servius,  and  Festus.  This  was  due  in  part  to  the  influence  of 
Alexandria,  partly  perhaps  to  the  fact  that  the  Romans  were  led 
to  pay  more  attention  to  grammar  by  learning  a  foreign  language. 

At  Rome,  in  contrast  to  the  principles  laid  down  by  Greek 
theorists  and  to  the  actual  practice  of  some  Greek  states,  the  law 
never-interfered  much  in  educational  matters * ,  in  early  times  the 
unity  of  the  family  was  too  strong,  and  the  power  of  the  pater- 
familias too  decided :  but  even  when  the  Emperors  began  to 
patronise  and  endow  education  we  do  not  find  any  legislative 
regulations  imposed  on  it,  nor  was  it  made  compulsory. 

In  the.  subject-matter  of  education  we  find  striking  contrasts  in 
the  place  given  to  gymnastic  and  music.  The  Romans  cRcTESt 
neglect  physical  education,  but  they  preferred  to  secure  the  end 
they  had  in  view  by  indulgence  in  games  and  field  sports,  supple- 
mented in  due  time  by  military  drill  and  training:  the  palaestra 
was  always  mistrusted,  and  even  where  introduced  was  never 
thoroughly  naturalised. 

Music  again  was  not  entirely  neglected  at  Rome:  it  formed 
part  of  the  worship  of  the  Gods :  its  place  in  a  complete  education 
is  acknowledged  by  Quintilian ;  but  no  one  ever  assigned  to  it  the 
same  influence  over  character  as  Plato  ascribed  to  it,  or  the  same 
importance  in  the  right  employment  of  leisure  that  we  find  at- 
tributed to  it  in  the  Politics. 

Lastly,  iQ  the  theorists  on  education  we  find  a  great  difference: 
Plato's  theories  are  concerned  with  the  whole  place  and  aim  of 
education  in  life,  and  with  the  life  for  which  education  is  to  pre- 
pare men ;  he  puts  forward  a  system  differing  widely  from  any  that 
had  been  realised  before,  or  has  been  since.     Aristotle  discusses 
the  best  subjects  for  education,  and  views  it  in  its  political  bear- 
ings.      At  Rome  there  is  nothing  of  thi$.     Juvenal  was  as  dis- 
satisfied with  the  education  of  his  day  as  Plato  had  been,  but  he 
only  laughs  at  the  fashionable  rhetoric,  or  attacks  with  burning 
satire   the  corruption  of  the  young  by  examples  of  immorality  • 
whilst  Quintilian's  theories  are  but  the  expression  of  the  experience^ 
of  a  teacher  as  to  the  best  method  of  giving  instruction  in  that  \ 
subject  which  he,  in  accordance  with  the  fashion  of  his  day,  re-/ 
garded  as  the  highest  end  of  education. 

1  Cic.  de  Rep.  4.  3,  says,  speaking  of  old  times,  '  Disciplinam  pnerilem  (de  qua 
Graeci  raaltum  fmstra  laboravenint  et  in  qua  ana  Polybius  noster  hospes  nostrorum 
institutoram  neglegentiam  accusat)  nnllam  certam  aut  destin&tam  legibus  ant  publice 
expositam  aut  unam  omnibus  esse  voluerant.'  • 


Education — Ancient' and  Modern.  51 


V  EDUCATION—  ANCIENT  AND  MODERN. 

*  I  call  a  complete  and  generous  education  that  which  fits  a  man  to  perform  justly. 
skilfully,  and  magnanimously  all  offices  both  private  and  public.'  —  MILTON. 


HERACLITUS. 
'Knowledge  comes  but  wisdom  lingers.'—  TENNYSON. 

It  would  be  difficult,  or  rather  impossible,  to  pass  a  single  sweep- 
ing judgment  on  Ancient  Education,  and  to  pronounce  it  good  or 
bad,  adequate  or  inadequate;  we  must  adopt  the  less  summary 
method  of  comparing  the  old  and  the  new  in  some  of  their  more 
important  features. 

As  to  the  diffusion  of  education,  it  is,  as  Mommsen  l  remarks, 
a  mistaken  opinion  that  antiquity  was  greatly  inferior  to  modern 
times,  at  least  so  far  as  elementary  attainments  are  concerned  ,  an 
enormous  proportion  of  the  population  consisted  of  slaves,  but  the 
masters  found  it  to  their  advantage  that  the  slaves  should  be  able 
to  read,  write,  and  count,  whilst  at  Rome,  as  we  have  seen,  Greek 
slaves  were  often  employed  as  teachers  of  grammar.  Nor  can,  the 
ancients  be  accused  of  underrating  the  importance  of  education, 
whilst  they  did  not  fall  into  the  delusion,  unfortunately  too  common 
amongst  trie  public  speakers  and  legislators  of  our  own  day,  that  the 
universal  diffusion  of  the  three  R's  will  of  itself  elevate  the  morality 
of  the  coming  generative.  They  saw  that  character  must  be  moulded 
by  personal  influence,  and  independence  of  action  stimulated  by  ex- 
perience in  action  ;  in  the  early  systems  both  of  Greece  and  Rome 
we  see  this  personal  influence  active,  and  its  decay  is  due  to  the 
degradation  of  individual  character,  the  paralysis  of  political  free- 
dom, which  overtook  both  countries.  They  saw  —  both  Greek  and 
Roman  —  though  they  acted  differently  upon  the  conviction  —  that 
physical  training  was  essential  to  the  development  of  a  'healthy 
mind,  and  was  not  without  its  ^direct  effect  upon  character  ,  on 
this  belief  the  Greek  founded  that  training  in  gymnastic  which 
formed  so  singular  and  prominent  a  feature  in  his  system. 

Yet  such  a  training  was,  per  haps  less  necessary  then  than  at  the 
present  time  ,  for  there  was  less  danger  of  excessive  mental  pres- 
sure. True  that  then,  as  now,  the  way  of  knowledge  was  narrow 
and  rough  and  steep  ;  yet  in  those  days  it  was  not  long,  and  a  great 
undiscovered  country  lay  behind  it.  The  world  was  young,  and 
what  history  it  had  was  not  preserved  ;  there  was  little  intercourse 
between  nations,  and  but  slight  need  of  learning  a  foreign  language  ; 
the  knowledge  of  nature,  wnich  has  given  later  generations  of  men 
so  marvellous  a  mastery  over  her  resources,  had  not  as  yet  been 
attained,  was  not  yet  dreamed  of.  Thus  there  was  less  hurry  in 
education  ;  it  might  finish  earlier  than  ours,  and  still  involve  less 
pressure  ;  nor  was  it  then  thought  necessary  to  test  the  pupil's  pro- 

Roman  History,  vol.  iii. 
£  2 


52        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

ficiency  in  his  work,  or  his  qualifications  for  some  post  or  office,  by 
constant  examination.  The  declamation  of  empty  rhetoric  before 
an  audience  of  parents  and  friends x  was  perhaps  not  more  valuable 
as  a  gauge  of  future  success  in  the  forum,  but  at  least  it  involved 
no  dangerous  strain.  '  Aestate  pueri  si  valent  satis  discunt '  might 
be  said  by  Martial ;  to-day  it  would  scarcely  be  taken  as  a  serious 
opinion  even  from  the  champion  of  our  greatest  public  schools. 
Yet,  though  this  stimulus  was  lacking,  we  have  no  reason  to  sup- 
pose that  the  formation  of  habits  of  industry  was  rare.  In  many 
cases,  especially  at  Rome,  we  find  evidences  of  prodigious  literary 
energy  kept  up  through  life ;  we  find  it  in  advocates  and  public 
men  like  Cicero,  and  in  polymaths  such  as  Varro  and  the  elder 
Pliny.  Perhaps  nothing  is  more  remarkable  than  the  great  general 
ability  of  Roman  men  of  affairs :  philosophers  are  sent  to  com- 
mand armies,  and  provincial  governors  return  home  to  spend  their 
declining  years  in  literary  studies. 

Ancient  methods  of  instruction  differed  of  necessity  from  ours  ; 
'we  have  school  editions  and  hand-books  where  they  depended 
chiefly  on  oral  instruction  ;  more  was  left  to  the  master's  power  of 
imparting  knowledge,  but  if  he  was  capable,  the  result  would  be 
more  satisfactory  than  where  the  information  has  been  chiefly 
acquired  from  a  book ;  the  knowledge  is  less  artificial,  is  more 
easily  retained  by  the  memory,  more  readily  brought  into  useful 
relation  with  other  knowledge.  Of  all  ancient  writers  on  educa- 
tion, Quintilian  is  the  one  who  has  most  knowledge  of  methods  of 
instruction,  and  the  quickest  insight  into  the  connection  between 
character  and  learning,  without  which  educators  are  but  groping  in 
the  dark  ;  it  is  one  of  the  most  cheering  signs  of  modern  educa- 
tion that  the  sympathy  between  pupil  and  master,  on  which  he  so 
strongly  insists,  is  in  this  century  again  recognised  as  essential, 
after  having  been  so  markedly  absent  during  the  previous  centuries 
from  the  majority  of  schools. 

^  We  have  remarked  on  the  fate  which  overtook  both  Roman  and 
Greek  education  ;  they  became  more  barren  as  they  became  more 
elaborate.  In  the  one  case  philosophy  and  rhetoric,  in  the  other 
rhetoric  with  grammatical  and  textual  studies,  monopolised  talent 
and  energy  which  might  have  been  devoted  to  some  more  practical 
end.  In  modern  education  we  may  discern  a  two-fold  danger; 
we  may  be  allured  by  a  wide  but  shallow  culture,  or  fall  into  the 
opposite  extreme  of  exaggerated  specialisation. 

Tine  fate  of  education  in  Rome  and  Greece  shows  us  how  imme- 
diately it  depends  on  the  conditions  of  the  society  in  which  it  pre- 
pares us  to  take  a  part :  freedom  perishes  ;  men  of  ambition  and 
ability  are  cut  off  from  practical  pursuits  and  from  political  success ; 
they  take  refuge  in  erudition  or  speculation,  or  even  in  the  display 
of  those  qualities  which  the  loss  of  political  life  has  now  rendered 
useless. 

1  Persius  iii.  45  '.Morituri  verba  Catonis  |  discere,  non  sano  multnm  laudanck 
magistro  {  quae  pater  addoctis  sudans  audiret  amicis.' 


Education — Ancient  and  Modern.  53 

The  differences  which  we  find  existing  between  ancient  and 
modern  education  are  due  partly  to  change  of  religion,  partly  to 
change  in  the  structure  of  society,  partly  to  the  theories  of  educa- 
tional reformers.  Rhetoric  did  not  at  once  disappear  with  the 
rise  of  Christianity,  and  in  the  fourth  century  we  find  traces  of  a 
Christian  rhetoric  which  in  pompous  exuberance  did  not  fall  far 
short  of  its  heathen  predecessors  l.  Gradually,  however,  the  eccle- 
siastical spirit  prevailed,  and  for  centuries  monasteries — more  espe- 
cially those  of  the  Benedictine  order — became  the  great  educational 
centres  of  Europe.  Education  became  less  general,  and  more 
subordinated  to  religion  ;  only  those  who  were  intended  for  a 
religious  career  would  study  the  Triviurn  and  Quadrivium  of  the 
arts  and  sciences ;  the  youthful  knight  or  squire  had  his  own  mere 
athletic  course  of  pursuits.  To  this  period  succeeded  the  Renais- 
sance and  the  Revival  of  Greek  learning,  bringing  with  it  the  rise 
of  a  purely  humanistic  education,  an  education  in  words  and  lan- 
guage and  style,  of  which  such  ample  traces  survive  in  the  systems 
of  to-day.  This  side  of  education  was  elaborated  in  the  Jesuit 
schools  of  the  seventeenth  and  eighteenth  centuries,  and  it  is  to  the 
Jesuits  that  we  owe  its  more  exaggerated  features,  such  as  the  pro- 
minence of  Latin  themes  and  verses,  as  well  as  the  machinery  of 
forms  and  examinations. 

Meanwhile  opposing  influences  did  not  leave  themselves  with- 
out witness :  ever  and  anon  there  have  arisen  from  different 
quarters  assailants  of  the  established  order  of  things — practical 
teachers  like  Comenius  and  Pestalozzi,  philosophers  like  Locke 
and  Milton,  theorists  like  Rousseau,  who  have  pointed  out  the 
flaws  in  existing  systems — the  perverted  methods,  the  waste  of 
labour,  the  fighting  against  nature,  the  neglect  in  developing 
latent  faculties,  the  loss  of  all  sense  of  proportion  by  which  they 
saw  the  education  of  their  day  disfigured.  In  few  cases,  if  any, 
has  the  voice  of  criticism  been  raised  entirely  in  vain :  much  that 
was  grotesque  and  irrational  has  disappeared  from  the  curriculum 
and  from  the  methods  of  instruction.  There  is  more  recognition 
of  the  necessity  of  sympathy  in  education  and  the  impossibility  of 
a  merely  mechanical  instruction:  some,  though  not  -sufficient^ 
weight  has  been  attached  to  the  training  of  the  senses  and  power 
of  observation.  Still  we  are  in  an  educational  chaos,  and  the 
reason  is  not  far  to  seek :  there  is  an  absence  of  definite  purpose 
and  aim :  of  those  who  are  educating  and  being  educated  the 
greater  part  scarcely  know  why  they  are  gathered  together.  K  now- 
ledge  has  been  increased :  in  science,  literature,  history,  and  art 
the  subject-matter  of  instruction  has  multiplied  and  is  multiplying 
with  fearful  rapidity.  The  polymathy  of  a  Varro  or  a  Pliny  is  no 

1  The  following  epitaph  of  a  Christian  rhetor  of  the  4th  century  is  preserved  on 
a  sarcophagus  in  the  Capitol  Museum  at  Rome : — 

'  Fl.  Magnus  IS.  C.  (?)  urbis  aeternae,  cui  tan  turn  ob  meritum  saum  detulit  senatus 
amplissimus  ut  sat  idoneam  iudicaret  a  quo  lex  dignitatis  inciperet.  Praeceptot 
fraudis  ignarus  et  intra,  breve  tempus  universae  patriciae  soboli  lectus  magister ; 
eloquentiae  ita  inimitabiHs  saeculo  suo  ut  tantum  vetcribus  possit  aequari.' 


54        Theory  and  Practice  of  Ancient  Education. 

longer  possible :  a  choice  must  be  made,  but  what  is  to  guide  us  in 
our  choice  ?  Almost  every  subject  has  some  value,  both  in  itself 
and  as  a  mental  discipline.  Some  voices  are  still  lifted  in  defence 
of  a  classical  education,  which,  if  in  its  origin  an  accident,  is 
nevertheless,  it  is  urged,  invaluable  in  disciplining  the  mind  and 
forming  a  cultured  taste,  while  it  furnishes  the  key  to  European 
history  and  literature  and  thought.  Study  science  is  the  cry  of 
another  party :  the  hopes  of  mankind  lie  in  the  increase  of  that 
knowledge  of  nature  which  alone  is  power.  And  a  third  voice  is 
heard — the  voice  of  poverty,  suggesting  that  it  will  be  best  to  study 
whatever  subject  is  most  marketable. — for  life  has  become  more 
complex  and  the  struggle  is  harder,  and  the  strugglers  more  nume- 
rous :  it  is  more  difficult  to  ascertain  what  society  wants,  and  the 
penalties  of  mistake  have  not  been  diminished. 

Then,  too,  we  have  set  up  our  examination  idol,  and  are  still 
worshipping  it  :  the  decree  has  gone  forth  that  all  the  world  is  to 
be  examined.  We  find  it  convenient  to  have  a  spur  to  exertion  : 
it  is  convenient  also  to  have  a  test  and  graduated  measure  of 
qualifications.  Yet  in  the  light  of  any  true  view  of  education 
who  can  doubt  that  the  system  is  in  many  ways  mischievous  ? 
More  should  be  done  to  make  studies  interesting  and  attractive, 
to  awaken  a  love  of  knowledge  for  its  own  sake  and  not  for  the 
sake  of  its  marks,  its  honours,  and  its  emoluments.  Can  anyone 
who  has  had  constant  experience  of  examinations,  whose  mental 
horizon  has  probably  been  bounded  by  the  one  immediately  before 
him,  doubt  for  one  moment  that  a  true  love  of  knowledge  has  been 
stunted  in  him,  a  true  method  of  enquiry  hidden  from  him,  the 
formation  of  clear  and  definite  ideas  hindered,  and  that  if,  like 
Shakspeare's  knight,  he  has  '  a  mint  of  phrases  in  his  brain,*  he 
is  unfortunately  less  their  master  than  their  slave? 

Again— is  our  education  of  character  satisfactory?  It  is  perhaps 
worth  noticing  that  a  recent  series  of  books  on  education  bears  on 
the  cover  a  view  of  the  interior  of  a  library :  our  generation  as- 
sociates education  with  books — with  books  about  books,  or  abstracts 
of  books  about  books :  the  latter,  in  Platonic  phrase,  being  fully 
three  times  removed  from  the  truth.  Education  of  character  has  a 
double  aspect :  there  is  the  necessity  of  guarding  against  im- 
morality, and  there  is  the  development  of  personality,  of  inde- 
pendence, of  self-confidence  An  Englishman  may  be  justified  in 
thinking  that  the  double  problem  has  been  better  solved  by  the 
public  schools  of  his  country  than  by  any  other  method  :  and  yet 
after  all  they  are  not  flexible  enough  to  suit  individual  character, 
and  too  often  save  the  strong  at  the  expense  of  the  weak. 

Something  might  be  said  of  the  inadequacy  of  our  early  training: 
with  the  altered  position  of  women  amongst  us  the  mother  can  do 
more  than  the  Roman,  far  more  than  the  Greek,  mother  :  but  with 
us  the  father  is  more  occupied,  and  even  if -the  moral  training  of 
the  child  is  attended  to,  it  is  too  often  thought  that  no  training  of 
the  faculties  of  observation  is  necessary,  and  the  victim  of  this 


Education — Ancient  and  Modern.  55 

finds  himself  later  on  in  life  with  some  sense  stunted  and  un- 
developed, and  '  wisdom  at  one  entrance  quite  shut  out.'  Nor 
are  matters  mended  if  education  begins  too  early,  and  instead  of 
the  senses  being  trained  the  memory  is  burdened  and  the  under, 
standing  taxed,  so  that  even  though  the  physique  may  remain  un- 
injured, the  mind  will  never  bear  its  due  fruit.  Against  this 
sacrifice  of  observation  to  book-learning  many  voices  have  been 
raised,  notably  those  of  Rabelais  and  Rousseau,  but  they,  like 
other  theorists  and  satirists,  found  it  easier  to  pull  down  than  to 
build  up.  It  was  easy  for  Rabelais  to  draw  an  amusing  picture  of 
Gargantua's  education  under  Tubal  Holofernes  and  Jobelin  Bride\ 
but  we  may  doubt  whether  Rousseau's  Emile,  after  having  arrived 
at  the  age  of  twelve  years l  without  knowing  what  a  book  was, 
would  not  have  preferred  to  remain  in  ignorance  for  a  longer 
period :  probably  he  would  have  fulfilled  only  too  literally  the 
philosopher's  paradox  that  the  great  end  of  education  is  not  to 
gain  but  to  waste  time  *. 

We  have  said  that  education  is  still  chaotic  :  we  do  not  mean 
that  it  should  be  level  and  uniform,  but  that  it  should  be  definite, 
and  relative  to  a  definite  end ;  \pri  r&cs  opo*>.  There  is  a  diversity 
of  gifts  and  functions  :  *non  omnia  possumus  omnes  :*  each  must 
be  contente^i  with  a  twig  or  a  bough  of  the  tree  of  knowledge. 
The  work  of  education  is  to  develope  to  the  utmost  the  possibili- 
ties of  each  individual  man,  '  that  nothing  be  lost,'  not  to  pass  a 
number  of  units  through  a  certain  process,  in  the  hope  that  they 
may  retain  a  superficial  polish  which  will  last  through  life.  The 
friction  of  the  world  soon  lays  bare  the  baser  metal. 

1  'A.  peine  a  douze  ans  Emile  saura-t-il  cc  quc  c'est  un  livre.* 

Le  grand  but  de  toute  I'&lucation  ce  n'est  pas  de  gagner  da  temps.    C'est  d'en 
* 


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